A

SEMINAR REPORT
ON

PLASTIC MEMEORY
In partial fulfillment for the award of
B. Tech. degree
in Information Technology

Submitted to: To: Submitted by:

S
Submitted By:
(APPROVED BY A.I.C.T.E, NEW DELHI & AFFILIATED BY R.T.U, KOTA) AIRPORT ROAD, DABOK, UDAIPUR
(RAJ.), PH: 0294-2657492

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Students of B.Tech. VI Sem. (Department of Information Technology)
of Geetanjali Institute of Technical Studies have successfully completed seminar on
“PLASTIC MEMORY”.

Acknowledgement
 It is a fortune to find opportunity to express our deep sense of gratitude to all those
people who helped us with their guidance and assistance, without which the project would not be
possible. Their contribution has been invaluable. The enduring pages of the work are the
cumulative sequence of extensive guidance and arduous work. We wish to acknowledge and
express our personal gratitude to all those without whom this work could not have been reality.
We feel very delighted to get this rare opportunity to show our profound senses of reverence and
indebtedness to all our esteemed teachers and for their keen and sustained interest, valuable
advice, throughout the project. For this kind of consideration we beholden to them in a special
manner and no words can fully convey our feelings of respect and regards for them.

At last we also want to express our sincere thanks to all the classmates for their
coordination and friendly cooperation with their suggestions.

Last but not the least we would like to thank all those who have directly or indirectly
helped and cooperated in accomplishing this.

Contents
 Types of Memory

 Introduction

 Structure

 Memory cell

 Read-write-erase cycle

 Features

 How it works

 Applications

 References

Types of Memory
 Primary storage (RAM)
Volatile
Temporary
Secondary storage
◦ Nonvolatile
◦ Permanent
Secondary storage characteristics
◦ Media
◦ Capacity
◦ Storage devices
Access speed

Introduction
Researchers from Princeton University, New Jersey, and Hewlett-Packard
Laboratories in Palo Alto, California, have managed to develop a polymer-based
memory unit, which can potentially be turned in to an inexpensive, plastic memory chip,
which could store a megabit of data per square millimeter.

Researchers at the Zernike Institute of Advanced Materials at the University of

Groningen have developed a technology for a plastic ferro-electric diode which they
believe will achieve a breakthrough in the development of ultra low-cost plastic memory
material. Their findings will be published in the July edition of Nature Materials, a
publication of Nature.

Researchers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP Labs developed the

memory, technically a hybrid that contains a plastic film, a flexible foil substrate and
some silicon. The findings appear in the journal Nature on Thursday.

The key to the new technology was the discovery by researchers from
Princeton University, New Jersey, and Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo
Alto, California, that passing a high current through PEDOT turns it into an
insulator, rather like blowing a fuse. The polymers two possible states,
conductor or insulator, then form the one and zero necessary to store digital
data.

San Jose, California: A new memory technology promises to store more data at less
cost than the expensive-to-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets
including digital cameras, cellphones and portable music players. The magical
ingredient isn’t smaller transistors or an exotic material cooked up by the semiconductor
industry. It’s a plastic.

Researchers at Princeton University and Hewitt-Packard Co’s HP Labs developed the

memory, technically a hybrid that contains a plastic film, a flexible foil substrate and
some silicon. The findings appear in the journal Nature on Thursday.

Unlike flash memory found in consumer devices, the new technology can be written to
only once, though it can be read many times. It acts in that respect like a non-
rewriteable compact disc.
But the new memory, which retains data even when there’s no power, won’t require a
power-hungry laser or motor to read or write, and promises more capacity.

“For music or photographs, it’s actually an advantage to have something you can’t
rewrite,” said Mr Warren Jackson, one of the paper’s co-authors and scientist at HP
Labs. “Even in accounting, it would be quite useful if you have a trail of files that you
can’t erase.”(AP)
 What is a Plastic memory?

Each time a thermoplastic is reheated it will try and return to its original
shape, unless it has been damaged due to overheating or overstretching. This
property is called plastic memory.

A new memory technology promises to store more data at less cost than
the expensive-to-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets including
digital cameras, cell phones and portable music players.

A conducting plastic has been used to create a new memory technology

with the potential to store a megabit of data in a millimetre-square device - 10 times
denser than current magnetic memories. The device should also be cheap and fast,
but cannot be rewritten, so would only be suitable for permanent storage.

Thermoplastics: There are a wide range of thermoplastics, some that

are rigid and some that are extremely flexible.The molecules of thermoplastics are in
lines or long chains with very few entanglements. When heat is applied the
molecules move apart, which increases the distance between them, causing them to
become untangled. This allows them to become soft when heated so that they can
be bent into all sorts of shapes

When they are left to cool the chains of molecules cool, take their former
position and the plastic becomes stiff and hard again. The process of heating,
shaping, reheating and reforming can be repeated many time

Long chain molecules

 Cyle for Thermoplastic

Plastc Memory:

It combines the best of silicon technology - diodes - with the capability to form
a fuse, which does not exist in silicon.

A conducting plastic has been used to create a new memory technology .

It has potential to store a megabit of data in a millimetre-square device

It is10 times denser than current magnetic memories.

 Plastic memory (Frank Verbakel)
One of the main challenges in computer hardware construction in the next decade will be the
design of new memory chips with decreased size. Existing memory architectures have reached
their limit of miniaturization and, hence, research in this area is currently directed towards
completely new designs. The simplest architecture would be a planar two-terminal device,
instead of the three-terminal field effect transistor devices currently used. Polymer
semiconductors might be used for this purpose, but quite remarkably these materials have
received little attention for dynamic memory applications. In this project we investigate organic
semiconductors, doped with e.g. mobile inorganic ions or other materials. These have been found
to exhibit a profound memory effect in their electrical conductivity. Based on this principle, a
two-terminal device will be developed that can be written and erased repeatedly by voltage
pulses of e.,g. -4 and +4 V, and read out at lower voltage.

Structure Of Plastic Memory

A two-terminal device in which an organic semiconducting polymer is sandwiched between two

electrodes, indium doped tin oxide (ITO) and aluminum. The experimental devices contain two
polymer layers.
The first layer consist of PEDOT:PSS to which an inorganic salt (e.g. lithium triflate) and
plasticizer (ethylene carbonate, EC) have been added. The second layer consists of poly(3-
hexylthiophene) (P3HT) doped with the plasticizer. Motion of the ions present in the device
under influence of an electric field is expected to induce switching between a high and a low
conduction state, the so called ON and OFF state of a memory device.

 Fig 1A) Write – Read –Erase cycle. A -6V pulse is applied to bring the memory in its written
state. Subsequently the memory is read at -0.5V. Further a +6V pulse is applied to erase to
memory.
 Fig 1B) A schematic overview of a memory cell

The device sandwiches a blob of a conducting polymer called PEDOT and a silicon
diode between two perpendicular wires. Substantial research effort has focused on
polymer-based transistors, which could form cheap, flexible circuits, but polymer-
based memory has received relatively little attention.

"The beauty of the device is that it combines the best of silicon technology - diodes
- with the capability to form a fuse, which does not exist in silicon," says Vladimir
Bulovic, who works on organic electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.

However, turning the polymer INTO an insulator involves a permanent chemical

change, meaning the memory can only be written to once. Its creators say this
makes it ideal for archiving images and other data directly from a digital camera,
cellphone or PDA, like an electronic version of film negatives.

Ion snatch
PEDOT's ability to conduct electricity means it is already used widely as the anti-
static coating on camera film. But until now, no one suspected that it could be
converted into an insulator.

The material is a blend of a negatively-charged polymer called PSS- and a

positively-charged one called PEDT+. Having distinct, charged components allows
it to conduct electricity and means that it is water soluble.

The team is not sure why it stops conducting when high currents pass through. But
Princeton researcher Stephen Forrest suspects that the heat produced by a high
current gives the PSS- layer sufficient energy to snatch a positively-charged
hydrogen ion from any water that has dissolved on its surface, forming a neutral
PSSH.

Without the negatively-charged PSS- to stabilise it, PED+ in turn grabs on to an

extra electron and also becomes neutral, converting PEDOT into an insulating
polymer.

Read and Write:To store the memory, the researchers use the wires and the diode
surrounding the PEDOT blob to run either a high or a low current through it. This
either creates an insulator or leaves it as a conductor.

To read the memory, they run current through the top wire and measure the current
in the bottom wire. No current means the bit is a zero, and vice versa.

In their paper in Nature, the researchers describe just one such junction. But for a
memory application, the device will need many more. So the Hewlett-Packard team
 is now working on building a grid of intersecting wires. In this way, they can read
and write multiple bits to one device. A grid system is commonly used in display
screens to switch individual pixels.

Polymer devices can sprayed or printed, and are therefore much cheaper than
silicon devices, which must be etched.

The newly developed technology is similar to that used in Flash memory chips. In both
cases, the memory retains data without being connected to a power source. Flash
memory chips are used in memory sticks, MP3 players, cellular phones and in the
memory cards of digital cameras. The researchers at the Zernike Institute of Advanced
Materials expect the new technology to lead to the development of comparable products
possibly even more significant.
One product they have in mind is an electronic price tag which could be read
radiographically at the cash desk of retail stores, replacing the bar codes currently in
use. Another possible application is for the material to be used in packaging material
which could warn consumers when a product is nearing its expiration date.
Plastic transistor
In 2005, a joint team of researchers from the University of Groningen and Philips
already successfully integrated a ferro-electric polymer into a plastic transistor. Because
the ferro-electric material can be switched between two different stable states through
the use of a voltage pulse, it operates as a ‘non-volatile’ memory (meaning that the
material retains data without being connected to a power source). The disadvantage of
such a transistor is that three connections are needed for programming and reading out
the memory, complicating the fabrication. The challenge was therefore to realize
comparable functionality within a memory component carrying only two connections: a
diode.

Ferro-electric diode
The breakthrough was accomplished during the research project of PhD student Kamal
Asadi, which was financed by the University of Groningen. It is based on a radically new
concept: instead of stacking a layer of semiconducting material on a layer of ferro-
electric material, a mixture of these two materials is used. The ferro-electric
characteristic of the mixture is then used to direct current through the semi-conducting
part of the mixture.
The new 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. The
University of Groningen has obtained a patent on the new material.
A new memory technology promises to store more data at less cost than the expensive-
to-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets including digital cameras, cell
phones and portable music players.
The magical ingredient isn't smaller transistors or an exotic material cooked up by the
semiconductor industry.
 It's a plastic.

Layers of Memory
The new memory, which could end up in a small format similar to CompactFlash or SD
Cards, doesn't use transistors to store information. Instead, bits are written when a
strong current passes through a polymer fuse, causing it to blow and change its
conductivity. Smaller currents determine what junctions are opened or closed — which
translates into the digital world's ones and zeros — to retrieve the contents.
Because manufacturing wouldn't require vacuum chambers or high temperatures, layers
could be stacked atop each other, like a layer cake. Such stacking has yet to be
attempted.
"There are no critical alignment steps and no lithography," said Stephen Forrest, a
Princeton scientist and study co-author. "Most importantly, it's not on a crystalline
substrate so that we can stack these memories very tightly. We can use three
dimensions to create the memory."

Plastic memory retains data

Researchers from Johannes Kepler University in Austria have borrowed a

technique from audio recording technology to fashion a new type of computer
memory made from organic, or plastic materials.

The memory works in a way similar to common ferroelectric transistor

memory elements, which store the 1s and 0s of computer information as one
of two electric polarization directions. The researchers' device uses a charge
electret, or material that stores electric charge, rather than ferroelectric
material to store information. Electret material is more commonly used in a
type of microphone.
The method could eventually be used to make inexpensive plastic computer
memory for devices like radiofrequency ID tags, smart cards, electronics
devices that can be integrated into textiles, and plastic computer chips,
according to the researchers.

The researchers' prototype stored data for more than 15 hours after power to
the device was turned off.

The prototype memory cell consists of an indium tin oxide gate electrode, a
layer of polyvinyl alcohol, a semiconductor layer containing the spherical
carbon molecules dubbed buckyballs, and chromium source and drain
electrodes. When a voltage is applied to the device, an electric charge is
trapped in or on the polyvinyl alcohol layer.

The device has a charge carrier mobility of about 10 square centimeters per
volt second. Existing organic semiconductor devices have carrier mobilities
ranging from less than one to about 10. Carrier mobility is a measure of a
device's ability to conduct electricity.

It will be five to ten years before the memory can be used in practical
applications, according to the researchers. The work appeared in the
November 29, 2004 issue of Applied Physics Letters.

 The research group, led by materials science professor Yang

Yang in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science, has demonstrated high performance of plastic
memory devices fabricated by solution processing. The device is
made from a polystyrene film containing gold nanoparticles, and
holds promise for low-cost, high-density memory storage.

"There is a lot of talk about nanotechnology, but our device is a

nanoparticle-induced phenomenon. It is the nano size of the
gold particles that allows them to store the charge and function
as a memory device," Yang said. "It's a revolutionary
technology. We've combined a traditional material —
polystyrene — and a high-tech material to make it happen."

He added, "Polystyrene is a commonly used plastic material that

can be found in the home, the office, the local grocery store and
the cafeteria. It comes in many shapes and forms, from foam
egg cartons to trays or soup bowls to coffee cups and utensils.
And our invention turns this commodity plastics into a high-tech
invention."

Yang's first-generation organic memory devices were fabricated

in a vacuum chamber; his team wanted to develop a memory
device that could be processed more easily. Although
polystyrene may seem like an unlikely base material for memory
devices, it's inexpensive and easy to work with.

In a solution process, the polystyrene base is carried in a liquid

and can be applied through spray, paint or print technology.
This method is less complicated than vacuum fabrication
methods and also less expensive. Through the use of the
solution process, the polystyrene-based material also can be
constructed in three-dimensional arrays for high-density
storage.

The new material has a wide range of potential uses, including

digital memory chips for computers, digital cameras and cell
phones, to name a few applications.

"There is a growing demand for inexpensive memory storage,

and flash memory is expensive and slow," Yang said. "Plastic
memory devices will be both faster and cheaper than current
technology."

In laboratory tests, the polymer memory device has shown it

can meet nearly all of the performance requirements. The team
is working to extend its lifetime, so that it can write and erase
for a million cycles and store the data for at least 10 years.

"We're exploring related scientific issues through materials

engineering and a fundamental understanding of the device's
operating mechanism to push it to the next level of reliability,"
Yang said. "By partnering with industry, we're also able to work
 on practical, commercial issues."

Applications:

 Devices like:-

 Radiofrequency ID tags,
 Smart Cards,
 Plastic computer chips,

Electronics devices that can be integrated into textiles,

"This is one of the ways in which I think nanotechnology leads to a

bright future in scientific exploration," Yang said. "Researchers
must create novel phenomena based on new materials and by
finding new applications."

This research project also is supported by the Air Force Office of

Scientific Research.

Applications:

Devices like:-

 Radiofrequency ID tags,
 Smart Cards,
 Plastic computer chips,

Electronics devices that can be integrated into textiles.

Bibliography
 www.wikipedia.com
 /www.scientificamerican.com
 /trnmag.com
 http://thewere42.wordpress.com
 www.technologyreview.in