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Plastic diode breakthrough
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17/06/2008
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Researchers at the Zernike Institute of Advanced Materials at the University of Groningen have developed a technology for a plastic ferroelectric diode which they believe will achieve a breakthrough in the development of ultra low cost plastic memory material. The technology is said to be similar to that used in flash memories.
A joint team of researchers from the University of Groningen and Philips integrated a ferroelectric polymer into a plastic transistor in 2005. Because the ferroelectric material can be switched between two different stable states through the use of a voltage pulse, it operates as a non volatile memory. Its disadvantage is that three connections are needed for programming and reading the memory, complicating the fabrication. The challenge was therefore to realise comparable functionality within a memory component carrying only two connections: a diode.
The breakthrough was accomplished during the research project of PhD student Kamal Asadi. Instead of stacking a layer of semiconducting material on a layer of ferroelectric material, a mixture of these two materials is used. The mixture’s ferroelectric characteristic is used to direct current through the semiconducting part of the mixture.
The memory diode can be programmed quickly, retains data for a long time and operates at room temperature. The voltages needed for programming are low enough for the diode to be used in commercial applications and the material can be manufactured at low cost using large scale industrial production techniques.
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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