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New Plastic Memory Technology May Replace Silicon Chips
Top: Conceptual view
of a working device. Application of an electrical voltage
to an individual element blows-out the small polymer fuse,
creating a “0”. Re-polling of the device records
which columns are 1’s and which are 0’s. Hence
a simple but effective memory is created.
Bottom: Schematic of the memory element
used in this study, employing an Aluminum coated, flexible
stainless steel substrate. Also shown is the chemical structural
formula of the plastic polymer, PEDOT. .
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IRG 3: S. Möller, C. Perlov, W. Jackson, C. Taussig and S.
R. Forrest
A new memory device developed by PCCM researchers uses thin layers
of plastic film to permanently store data. Startlingly simple in
design, the device could be a breakthrough that offers an inexpensive
alternative to the ever-more complex memory systems based on Silicon.
The new system promises more capacity and won’t require a
laser to read or write information from its many rows and columns.
And the organic materials used are flexible and so could be shaped
to fit in many spaces off-limits to the rigid Silicon.
Related publication [DMR-0213796]:
S. Möller, C. Perlov, W. Jackson, C. Taussig and S. R. Forrest,
"A Polymer/Semiconductor Write Once Read Many Times Memory
Element," Nature, 426, 166 (2003).
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