POLYMER MEMORY

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

DR . M . VENKATA RAMANAIAH
PRESENTED BY
S.SRILAXMI
16R01A0451
 WHAT IS MEANT BY POLYMER?
 Polymer is combination of two Greek words, “Poly” means many and
“meros”
means “part of unit”.
 A Polymer is a large molecule of which is formed by a repeated linking of
the small molecules called monomers
Examples of polymer are polyethylene, polystyrene, polypropylene etc…
WHAT IS MEANT BY MEMORY?
 In computing, Memory refers to the physical device used to store
programs or data on temporary or permanent basis of use in a
computer or other digital electronic device
Memory is made of semi-conductor switches. The position of the
switch is used to represent the binary number 0 or 1.
A single unit of memory is called a Bit and can store 0 or 1.
WHAT IS MEANT BY POLYMER MEMORY?
 Polymer memory refers to a new technology that uses conductive
polymers instead of silicon based constructions to store information
Polymer memory is made out of electrically conducting polymer
known as PEDOT
WHAR IS MEANT BY PEDOT?

PEDOT is known as Poly 2,3 EthyleneDioxyThiophene

 PEDOT coatings posses high stability over different

charge and discharge cycles and can be electrogenerated
directly on a conductive support.
 The device sandwiches a blob of a conducting polymer called
PEDOT
(POLYETHYLENE DIOXYTHIOPHENE)

 Stores a megabit of data in a millimeter-square device 10 times

denser than current memories

 Turning the polymer into a insulator involves a permanent chemical

change, meaning the memory can only be written to once
FABRICATION
ARCHITECTURE OF POLYMER MEMORY
DEVICES
 Each polymer is sandwiched between two
electrodes which acts as memory cell

 A voltage is applied between top and the

bottom electrodes

 Memory is represented as space charges in

the polymers that are detected using electric
pulses
STORING DATA
 Stores information in an entirely different manner than silicon
devices.
 Stores data based on the polymer’s electrically resistance.
 Application of an electric field to a cell lowers the polymer’s
resistance, thus increasing its ability to conduct current.
 The polymer maintains its state until a field of opposite polarity is
applied
to raise its resistance back to its original level.
 The different conductivity states represent bits of information.
READ / WRITE DATA
 For Writing
 To store the memory, it use the
wires and the diode surrounding the
PEDOT blob to run either a high or
a low current through it.
 For Reading
 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.
EXPANDING MEMORY CAPABILITY BY
USING STACKED MEMORY
 Exapanding memory capability is simply a matter of coating a new
layer on top of an existing one.

 The footprint remains the same even after expansion because each
new layer adds the same capacity as the first one.
HOLOGRAPHIC STORAGE USING POLYMER
 Holographic storage relies mainly on laser light and a photosensitive
material-usually a crystal or a polymer used to save data.
 It works by splitting a laser beam in two. One beam contains the data
and is referred to as the “object beam” ; the other holds the location of
the data and is known as the “reference beam”.
 The two beams intersect to create an intricate pattern of light and
dark bands. A replica of this so called interference pattern gets
engraved 3-D into the photosensitive material and becomes the
hologram.
FEATURES OF POLYMER MEMORY
 Data stored by changing the polarization of the polymer between
metal lines.
 Zero transistors per bit of storage.
 Microsecond initial reads. Write speed faster than NAND and NOR
Flash.
 Simple processing, easy to integrate with other CMOS.
 No cell standby power or refresh required.
 Operational temperature between 40 and 110 C
ADVANTAGES OF POLYMER MEMORY
 Polymer memory layers can be stacked. This enable to achieve very
high storage capacity.
 Memory is Nonvolatile.
 Fast read and writes speeds.
 Very low cost/bit, high capacity per rupee.
 Low power consumption.
Easy manufacture, use ink-jet printers to spray liquid- polymer circuits
onto a surface.
 10x faster than conventional memory devices.
LIMITATIONS OF POLYMER MEMORY
 It can be read many times but it can be write olny ones.

 The biggest challenge is developing production technique.

 This technology is still under research, so it will take time to launch in

the market.
APPLICATIONS OF POLYMER MEMORY
CONCLUSION
 It is 10 times denser than the current magnetic memories.
Store mega-bit of data in millimeter-square device.
Data can’t be rewritten so suitable for permanent storage.
 It requires only few transistors.
It cost about 5% as much to manufacture compared to silicon-based
memory.
Retain data without power.
REFERENCES
 Zhang, Xinyu; MacDiarmid, Alan G.;Manohar, Sanjeev K.(2005).
“Chemical Synthesis of PEDOT nanofibers”. Chemical Communications
(42): 5328-30. doi:10.1039/b511290g. PMID 16244744
 Unfolding space, memory by N.Nagaraj Financial Dialy from THE
HINDU group of publications.
www.detnews.com
Technical paper, “Memory Device Applications of a Conjugated
Polymer: Role of Space Charges,” Journal of Applied Physics,
February 15, 2002