R&D: Nonvolatile Transistor Memory Based on High-k Dielectric Polymer Blend for Multilevel Storage, Encryption, and Protection

^{Chemistry of Materials has published an article written by Xiaosong Wu, State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 155 Yangqiao West Road, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China, and College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China, Shiyu Feng, State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 155 Yangqiao West Road, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, P. R. China, Jinghui Shen, College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, P. R. China, Wei Huang, State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 155 Yangqiao West Road, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China, and College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China, Cong Li, College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, P. R. China, Caicong Li, Yuan Sui, School of Resources Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330000, P. R. China, and Weiguo Huang, State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 155 Yangqiao West Road, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China, and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.}

Abstract: “Nonvolatile transistor memories (NVTMs) are fabricated based on a polymer blend dielectric containing poly(pentafluorophenyl acrylate) (pPFPA) and branched-poly(ethylene imine) (bPEI). Detailed studies reveal this dielectric not only exhibits a high dielectric constant (k = 285 at 20 Hz), apparent polarization hysteresis, and robust mechanical properties but also endows a transistor (PBTTT-C14 as semiconductor) with ultrahigh mobilities (7.5 cm² V^–1 s^–1) and on/off ratios (10⁷). By virtue of this, NVTMs possessing an eight-level storage capability at low operating gate voltages are demonstrated, with good data retention and endurance of over 10⁵ s and 100 cycles, respectively. More importantly, the drain current can also be well controlled by the gate voltage pulse width, leading to NVTMs with two-dimensional (voltage and time) storage capability. Further, the application of the NVTMs to data recording, encryption, and protection is demonstrated, with a desirable security feature, opening the door to NVTMs with higher performance.“