PLASTIC MEMORY

1. INTRODUCTION
Imagine a scenario where the memory stored in your digital camera or personal digital assistant is partially based one of the most flexible materials made by man- plastic.

The recent development in the memory was a new form of permanent computer memory which uses plastic and may be much cheaper and faster than the existing silicon circuits which was invented by Researchers at Princeton University working with HewlettPackard. This memory is technically a hybrid which contains a plastic film, a flexible foil substrate and some silicon, that could store more data and cost less than traditional siliconbased chips for mobile devices such as handheld computers, cell phones and MP3 players.

A conducting plastic has been used to create a new memory technology with the potential to store a megabit of data in a millimeter 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.

The device sandwiches a blob of a conducting polymer called PEDOT (POLYETHYLENE DIOXYTHIOPENE) 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.

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.

While microchip makers continue to wring more and more from silicon, the most dramatic improvements in the electronics industry could come from an entirely different material plastic. Labs around the world are working on integrated circuits, displays for handheld devices and even

1 A.S.I.E.T., KALADY Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engg.

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PLASTIC MEMORY solar cells that rely on electrically conducting polymers not siliconfor cheap and flexible electronic components. Now two of the worlds leading chip makers are racing to develop new stock for this plastic microelectronic arsenal: plastic memory. Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, CA, is working with Coatue, a startup in Woburn, MA, to develop chips that store data in polymers rather than silicon. The technology, according to Coatue CEO Andrew Perlman, could lead to a cheaper and denser alternative to flash memory chipsthe type of memory used in digital cameras and MP3 players. Meanwhile, Intel is collaborating with Thin Film Technologies in Linkping, Sweden, on a similar high capacity plastic memory.

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2. PRESENT MEMORY TECHNOLOGY SCENARIO

In order to enable computers to work faster, there are several types of memory available today. Within a single computer there are more than one type of memory. Memory

DRAM

SRAM

NVRAM FLASH EEPROM PROM

EPROM

RAM : The RAM family includes two important memory devices: static RAM (SRAM) and dynamic RAM (DRAM). The primary difference between them is the lifetime of the data they store. SRAM retains its contents as long as electrical power is applied to the chip. If the power is turned off or lost temporarily, its contents will be lost forever. DRAM, on the other hand, has an extremely short data lifetime-typically about four milliseconds. This is true even when power is applied constantly.

ROM : Memories in the ROM family are distinguished by the methods used to write new data to them (usually called programming), and the number of times they can be rewritten. This classification reflects the evolution of ROM devices from hardwired to programmable to erasable-and-programmable. A common feature of all these devices is their ability to retain data and programs forever, even during a power failure.

PROM : PROM (programmable ROM), is purchased in an unprogrammed state, then the device programmer writes data to the device one word at a time by applying an electrical charge to the input pins of the chip. Once a PROM has been programmed in this way, its contents can never be changed. If the code or data stored in the PROM must be changed, 3 A.S.I.E.T., KALADY Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engg.
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the current device must be discarded. As a result, PROMs are also known as one-time programmable (OTP) devices.

EPROM : An EPROM (erasable-and-programmable ROM) is programmed in exactly the same manner as a PROM. However, EPROMs can be erased and reprogrammed repeatedly. To erase an EPROM, you simply expose the device to a strong source of ultraviolet light. By doing this, you essentially reset the entire chip to its initial unprogrammed state.

HYBRID MEMORY : As memory technology has matured in recent years, the line between RAM and ROM has blurred. Now, several types of memory combine features of both. These devices do not belong to either group and can be collectively referred to as hybrid memory devices. Hybrid memories can be read and written as desired, like RAM, but maintain their contents without electrical power, just like ROM. Two of the hybrid devices, EEPROM and flash, are descendants of ROM devices. These are typically used to store code. The third hybrid, NVRAM, is a modified version of SRAM. NVRAM usually holds persistent data.

1.

EEPROM : An EEPROM (also called an E2PROM) or Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory, is a non-volatile storage chip used in computers and other devices to store small amounts of volatile (configuration) data. Any byte within an EEPROM may be erased and rewritten. Once written, the new data will remain in the device forever-or at least until it is electrically erased. EEPROMs are similar to EPROMs, but the erase operation is accomplished electrically, rather than by exposure to ultraviolet light. SEEPROM, meaning Serial EEPROM, is an EEPROM chip that uses a serial interface to the circuit board.

2.

FLASH MEMORY : Flash memory (sometimes called "flash RAM") is a type of constantly-powered nonvolatile memory that can be erased and reprogrammed in units of memory called blocks. It is a variation of EEPROM which, unlike flash memory, is erased and rewritten at the byte level, which is slower than flash memory updating. Flash memory is often used to hold control code such as the basic input/output system (BIOS) in a personal computer. When BIOS needs to be changed (rewritten), the flash memory can be written to

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PLASTIC MEMORY in block (rather than byte) sizes, making it easy to update. On the other hand, flash memory is not useful as random access memory (RAM) because RAM needs to be addressable at the byte (not the block) level. When larger amounts of more static data are to be stored (such as in USB flash drives) other memory types like flash memory are more economic.

3.

NVRAM : The third member of the hybrid memory class is NVRAM (non-volatile RAM). Non-volatility is also a characteristic of the ROM and hybrid memories discussed previously. However, an NVRAM is physically very different from those devices. An NVRAM is usually just an SRAM with a battery backup. When the power is turned on, the NVRAM operates just like any other SRAM. When the power is turned off, the NVRAM draws just enough power from the battery to retain its data. NVRAM is fairly common in embedded systems.

Digital Memory is and has been a close comrade of each and every technical advancement in Information Technology. The current memory technologies have a lot of limitations. DRAM is volatile and difficult to integrate. RAM is high cost and volatile. Flash has slower writes and lesser number of write/erase cycles compared to others. These memory technologies when needed to expand will allow expansion only two dimensional space. Hence area required will be increased. They will not allow stacking of one memory chip over the other. Also the storage capacities are not enough to fulfill the exponentially increasing need. Hence industry is searching for Holy Grail future memory technologies for portable devices such as cell phones, mobile PCs etc. Next generation memories are trying a tradeoffs between size and cost .This make them good possibilities for development.

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3. NEXT GENERATION MEMORIES

As mentioned earlier microchip makers continue to wring more and more from silicon, large number of memory technologies were emerged. These memory technologies are referred as Next Generation Memories. Next Generation Memories satisfy all of the good attributes of memory. The most important one among them is their ability to support expansion in three dimensional spaces. Intel, the biggest maker of computer processors, is also the largest maker of flash -memory chips is trying to combine the processing features and space requirements feature and several next generation memories are being studied in this perspective. They include MRAM, FeRAM, Plastic memory and Ovonics Unified Memory. Plastic memory is the leading technology among them. It is mainly because of their expansion capability in three dimensional spaces. The following graph also emphasis acceptance of Plastic memory.

Memory Technology Comparison

The graph shows a comparison between cost and speed i.e., the Read/Write time. Disk drives are faster but expensive where as semiconductor memory is slower in read/write. Plastic memory lies in an optimum position. 6 A.S.I.E.T., KALADY Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engg.
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PLASTIC MEMORY Plastic-based memory modules, as against silicon-based ones, promise to revolutionize the storage space and memory capabilities of chips. Coatues plastic memory cells are about one quarter the size of conventional silicon cells. And unlike silicon devices, the polymer cells can be stacked that architecture could translate into memory chips with several times the storage capacity of flash memory. By 2004, Coatue hopes to have memory chips on the market that can store 32 gigabits, outperforming flash memory, which should hold about two gigabits by then, to produce a three-dimensional structure.

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4. POLYMERS AS ELECTRONIC MATERIALS

Polymers are organic materials consisting of long chains of single molecules. Polymers are highly adaptable materials, suitable for myriad applications. Until the 1970s and the work of Nobel laureates Alan J. Heeger, Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa, polymers were only considered to be insulators. Heeger et al showed that polymers could be conductive. Electrons were removed, or introduced, into a polymer consisting of alternately single and double bonds between the carbon atoms. As these holes or extra electrons are able to move along the molecule, the structure becomes electrically conductive.

Thin Film Electronics has developed a specific group of polymers that are bistable and thus can be used as the active material in a non -volatile memory. In other words, the Thin Film polymers can be switched from one state to the other and maintain that state even when the electrical field is turned off. This polymer is "smart", to the extent that functionality is built into the material itself, like switchability, addressability and charge store. This is different from silicon and other electronic materials, where such functions typically are only achieved by complex circuitry. "Smart" materials can be produced from scratch, molecule by molecule, allowing them to be built according to design. This opens up tremendous opportunities in the electronics world, where tailor-made memory materials represent unknown territory

Polymers are essentially electronic materials that can be processed as liquids. With Thin Films memory technology, polymer solutions can be deposited on flexible substrates with industry standard processes like spin coating in ultra thin layers.

4.1 Space charge and Polymers

Making a digital memory device means finding a way to represent the ones and zeros of computer logic, devising a relatively convenient way to retrieve these binary patterns from storage, and making sure the information remain stable. Digital memory is an essential

component of many electronic devices, and memory that takes up little space and electricity is in high demand as electronic devices continue to shrink. 8 A.S.I.E.T., KALADY Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engg.
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PLASTIC MEMORY Researchers from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and the Italian National used positive and negative electric charges, or space charges contained within plastic to , store binary numbers Research Council. A polymer retains space charges near a metal interface when there is a bias, or electrical current, running across the surface. These charges come either from electrons, which are negatively charged, or the positively-charged holes vacated by electrons. We can store space charges in a polymer layer, and conveniently check the presence of the space charges to know the state of the polymer layer. Space charges are essentially differences in electrical charge in a given region. They can be read using an electrical pulse because they change the way the devices conduct electricity. The researchers made the storage device by spreading a 50 -nanometer layer of the polymer regioregularpoly on glass, then topping it with an aluminum electrode. To write a space charge to the device, they applied a positive 20-second, 3-volt pulse. To read the state, they used a 0.2-volt, one minute pulse. Any kind of negative electrical pulse erased this high state or charge, replacing , it with the default low state. The space charges remain stable for about an hour and also can be refreshed by another 3-volt positive pulse. The researchers intend to increase the memory retention ability of their device beyond an hour. Researchers are looking forward to increasing it into days or more. Once this is achieved, polymer devices can be used in data storage devices and also as a switch whose state can be changed externally by a voltage pulse.

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5. PLASTIC COMPUTER MEMORY'S SECRET IS GOLD NANOPARTICLES

Taiwanese researchers say they have developed a simple, durable, and potentially inexpensive nonvolatile memory array made from a mix of plastic and gold nanoparticles. The array is a 16byte device called an organic nonvolatile bistable memory. The researchers, fromNational Chung Hsing University (NCHU) and the quasi-governmental Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), presented details of the device today in Washington, D.C., at the2007 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. The Taiwanese team plans to integrate the memory into smart cards. Engineers have been pursuing organic nonvolatile memoriesdevices made from plastic and other carbon-based chemicalsbecause they can potentially be manufactured cheaply using printing processes. But organic memory devices tend to break down in air and under the stress of many read-write cycles. Recent measurements suggest that it endures more than 1000 switches and retains its data for roughly 10 days, even when exposed t air. Its stability may quickly o improve, says Pei. Theoretically, the memorys retention time can reach 30 days, he says. 10 A.S.I.E.T., KALADY Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engg.

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PLASTIC MEMORY The new memory consists of gold nanoparticles mixed into a polymer called PCm, sandwiched between two aluminum electrodes. Reading the bit stored in the device involves applying a small voltage and measuring the resulting current. Ordinarily, the structure conducts little current, the state in which it is storing a 0. But push the voltage past 2 volts, and the current jumps 10 000-fold. Pei and his colleagues theorize that before that threshold, a trickle of electrons is hopping from gold nanoparticle to gold nanoparticle. But some get trapped along the way. At 2 volts, there are so many trapped electrons that they form a highly cond uctive path through the device. At that point, smaller voltages will continue to produce the high current, and the device is considered to be storing a 1. Erasing the bit is simply done by applying a strong negative voltage, sweeping away the trapped charges. The voltages involved in writing bits can stress the plastic and make a device unstable by causing the nanoparticles to clump together. But the Taiwanese researchers found a way to prevent that by stabilizing the nanoparticles. In the memory device, gold nanoparticles are connected directly to polymer chains, which act as fingers that get entangled with the host polymer, says Pei. Therefore, the stabilization of the structure of the organic memory can be ensured even if high-voltage stress is applied.

Peis team plans to show off the device on 17 and 18 December at the 2007 International Symposium for Flexible Electronics and Display (ISFED), to be held in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and sponsored by ITRI.

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PLASTIC MEMORY An organic memory is considered essential to implement flexible electronics, such as radiofrequency identification (RFID), smart cards, e-paper, and flexible displays. In mid-March, ITRI launched Taiwans first laboratory dedicated to flexible electronics, with US $9.1 million in funding.

Other research groups are also pursuing organic nonvolatile memory devices using either different nanoparticles, such as carbon-60, embedded in the plastic or using the plastic as part of an organic transistor structure.

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6. HOW DOES PLASTIC MEMORY WORK?

Making a digital memory device means finding a way to represent the ones and zeros of computer logic, devising a relatively convenient way to retrieve these binary patterns from storage, and making sure the information remains stable. Plastic memory stores information in an entirely different manner than silicon devices. Rather than encoding zeroes and ones as the amount of charge stored in a cell, Coatues chips store data based on the polymers electrical resistance. Using technology licensed from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, Coatue fabricates each memory cell as a polymer sandwiched between two electrodes. To activate this cell structure, a voltage is applied between the top and bottom electrodes, modifying the organic material. Different voltage polarities are used to write and read the cells.

Application of an electric field to a cell lowers the polymers 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. A polymer retains space charges near a metal interface when there is a bias, or electrical current, running across the surface. These charges come either from electrons, which are negatively charged, or the positively-charged holes vacated by electrons. We can store space charges in a polymer layer, and conveniently check the presence o the space charges to know the f state of the polymer layer. Space charges are essentially differences in electrical charge in a given region. They can be read using an electrical pulse because they change the way the device conducts electricity.

The basic principle of Polymer based memory is the dipole moment possessed by polymer chains. It is the reason by which polymers show difference in electrical conductivity. As explained earlier implementing a digital memory means setting up away to represent logic one and logic zero. Here polarizations of polymers are changed up or down to represent logic one and zero. Now lets see what are a dipole and a dipole moment.

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6.1 Dipole Moment

When electric field is applied to solids containing positive and negative charges, the positive charges are displaced in the direction of the field towards negative end, while negative charges are displaced in the opposite direction. Two equal and opposite charges separated by a distance form a dipole. Hence this displacement produces local dipoles throughout the solid. The dipole moment per unit volume of the solid is the sum of all the individual dipole moments within that volume and is called Polarization of the solid. The intensity of dipole moment depend on the extend of the displacement which in turn depend on the applied electric field intensity.

The alignment of local dipoles within a polymer chain

Coatue fabricates each memory cell as a polymer sandwiched between two electrodes. When electric field is applied polymers local dipoles will set up. The alignment of local dipoles within a polymer chain is shown in the diagram.

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7. PLASTIC MEMORY TECHNOLOGY

7.1 BASIC PROPERTY OF PLASTIC
While experimenting with a polymer material known as PEDOT, Princeton University researcher Sven Moller determined that although the plastic conducts electricity at low voltages, it permanently loses its conductivity when exposed to higher voltages. Together with colleagues from Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, he developed a method to take advantage of this p roperty to store digital information, which can be stored as collections of ones and zeros

7.2 PROCEDURE
The PEDOT-based memory card consists of a grid of circuits comprising polymer fuses. A large applied current causes specific fuses to "blow," leaving a mix of functioning and nonfunctioning connections. When a lower current is later used to read the data, a blown fuse blocks current flow and is read as a zero, whereas a working fuse is interpreted as a one. Because the storage method involves a physical change to the device, it is a so-called WORM--write once, read many times--technology. "The device could probably be made cheaply enough that one -time use would be the best way to go," says study co-author Stephen Forrest of Princeton University. The team predicts that one million bits of information could fit into a square millimeter of material the thickness of a sheet of paper. A block just a cubic centimeter in size could contain as many as 1,000 high-quality digital images, the scientists suggest, and producing it wouldn't require high-temperatures or vacuum chambers.

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Top: Conceptual view of a working device. Application of an electrical voltage to an individual element blows-out the smallpolymer fuse, creating a 0. Re-polling of the device records which columns are 1s and which are 0s. Hence a simple bu 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. .

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.

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A schematic overview of a memory cell.

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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 consists 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. The researchers made the storage device by spreading a 50 -nanometer layer of the polymer regioregularpoly on glass, then topping it with an aluminum electrode. To write a space charge to the device, they applied a positive 20-second, 3-volt pulse. To read the state, they used a 0.2-volt, one minute pulse. Any kind of negative electrical pulse erased this high state, or charge, replacing it with the default low state. In this process, a continuous sheet of flexible polymer is unrolled from one spool, covered with circuit-board-like patterns of silicon, and collected on another spool.

The Thin Film memory design is solid state, with no mechanical or moving parts involved. It uses a passively addressed, cross point matrix. An ultra thin layer of the TFE polymer is sandwiched between two sets of electrodes. A typical array may consist of several thousand such electrically conducting lines and hence millions of electrode crossings. Memory cells are defined by the physical overlap of the electrode crossings and selected by applying voltage. Each electrode crossing represents one bit of information in a true 4f (4 -Lampda square) cell structure, the smallest possible physical memory cell. The effective cell footprint is further reduced if additional memory layers are applied. In the latter case, each new layer adds the same capacity as the first one. This stacking is a fundamental strength of the Thin Film technology. The plastic memory layers are just 1/10,000 of a millimeter or less in thickness, autonomous and easy to deposit. Layer upon layer may be coated on a substrate. A layer may include a self contained active memory structure with on-layer TFT circuitry, or share circuitry with all other layers. Both approaches offer true 3D memory architecture. The stacking option will enable manufacturers to give gain previously unattainable storage capacity within a given footprint.

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8. READ/WRITE TECHNOLOGY USED IN PLASTIC MEMORY

Scientists from Ohio University has created a new spintronics memory device from plastic. Its simply a thin strip of dark blue organic-based magnet layered with a metallic ferromagnet and connected to two electrical leads. Still, the researchers successfully recorded data on it and retrieved the data by controlling the spins of the electrons with a magnetic field. They say that the new device is a bridge between todays computers and the all-polymer, spintronic computers that the researchers hope to eventually create.

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9. READ AND WRITE METHOD

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. Cheap and plastic aren't words often associated with cutting-edge technology. But researchers in Tokyo have created a new kind of plastic low-cost flash memory that could find its way into novel flexible electronics.

Flash memory stores data electrically, in specially designed silicon transistors. Information can be recorded and read quickly and is retained even when the power is off. This makes flash ideal for MP3 players, cameras, memory cards, and USB drives. But the technology is still more expensive than conventional hard disks.

The prototype plastic flash memory cannot match silicon's storage density, long -term stability, or number of rewrite cycles. But its low cost could make it possible to integrate flash memory into more unconventional electronics. For example, cheap plastic memory devices might be incorporated into e-paper or disposable sensor tags.

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10. NUMBER OF TRANSISTORS, SPEED ETC.

NUMBER OF TRANSISTORS
The stacking also means that a lesser number of transistors can be used for the circuitry in the chip. The Thin Film system requires about 0.5 million transistors per gigabit of memory compared to 1.5 to 6.5 billion transistors required by traditional silicon-based systems for one gigabit. While the illustrations on advantages regarding the size were based on RAM for matters of convenience, the fact is that the new polymer-based technology can offer total storage solutions.

SPEED
The absence of moving parts offers a substantial speed advantage compared to mechanical storage systems such as magnetic hard disks and optical storage. Thin Film memory technology is all solid state based. The absence of moving parts in itself offers a substantial speed advantage compared to all mechanical systems, like magnetic hard disks and optical systems. The polymer film can be read in two modes either destructive or non-destructive. In the first case, reading speed is symmetric with write. Depending on how the polymer is processed and initialized this speed can range from nanoseconds to microseconds. This speed symmetry puts the Thin Film memory in a favorable position versus e.g. another non -volatile memory, NAND flash, where the erase before write may be orders of magnitude slower than the read. In the non-destructive read mode the Thin Film memory speed will be comparable to or better than DRAM read speeds. More important than single bit speed capacity is the potentials embedded in the 3D architecture per sec, allowing massive parallelism in multiple dimensions and the use of mega words rather than the prevailing 64 and 128 bit words.

COST
Cost-wise, because the polymer is solution-based and can easily be applied to large surfaces with regular coating processes (even something as simple as printing a photograph on an ink -jet printer), there is a huge advantage in terms of price for capacity. The use of a solution based memory material opens up for better price/capacity performance than hitherto experienced by the 21 A.S.I.E.T., KALADY Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engg.
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PLASTIC MEMORY electronic industry. For the hybrid silicon-polymer chips, the substrate circuitry with one memory layer will typically cost the same to process per area unit as competing silicon devices, however, since more bits can be packaged in that area, the cost per MB wi l be substantially lower. The l ability to expand capacity by stacking also means that the cost per MB will reduce substantially. TFE believes that the cost per MB will become so low that truly disposable memory chips will become possible. One report says that this technology could take flash card prices to 10 per cent of what they are today.

One can imagine what this would mean to laptops (same footprint, but gigabytes of space and RAM), mobile phones (more and more phone numbers and SMS messages), PDAs (more e-mail, more addresses, and more notes), digital cameras (more and better pictures per card, and the cards are cheap!). The news is explosive: Evidently, for the cost of a few cents, a Norwegian company can produce a memory module with a capacity of up to 170,000 gigabytes, which could fit on a bank card. This price advantage scales with the number of memory layers. Typically 8 layers involve about the same number of mask steps as making a conventional memory chip, or twice the cost of a single layer chip, while the storage capacity increases 8x. Even greater cost advantages will come with TFT based chips, using inkjet printers or roll-to-roll production. Cost per MB will here become so low that true disposable memory chips can be envisaged.

OPERATIONAL TEMPERATURE
Polymers are robust by nature. The plastic memory developed by Thin Film has undergone stringent reliability tests at temperatures between -40 and 110C. The results underline the exceptional stability of the plastic memory and compliance with military and commercial standard tests.

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11.

FEATURES OF PLASTIC MEMORY

metal lines.

1. Data stored by changing the polarization of the polymer between 2. Zero transistors per bit of storage 3. Memory is Nonvolatile

4. Microsecond initial reads. Write speed faster than NAND and NOR Flash. 5. Simple processing, easy to integrate with other CMOS 6. No cell standby power or refresh required 7. Operational temperature between -40 and 110C.

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12. COMPARISON WITH FLASH MEMORY

1. Plastic memory is fast. Lab-built devices with a 1GB storage capacity have yielded read/write cycle times that are 10 times faster than Compact Flash, which are typically 2- 10MB/s 1-4MB/s write. 2. It requires far fewer transistors, typically only 0.5M (million) for 1GB of storage compared to silicon's 1.5-6.5B (billion). 3. It costs about 5% as much to manufacture compared to silicon based memory. 4. It can be stacked vertically in a product, yielding 3D space be set beside each other. 5. It has very low power consumption. 6. The control circuitry only occupies 1-5% of total transistor area. usage; silicon chips can only read,

7. It maintains memory even when the power is turned off. Nothing new compared to flash, but worth mentioning.

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13. ADVANTAGES OF PLASTIC MEMORY

The plastic 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 memory cannot be rewritten, but can be read very fast and with low power consumption. So this would be suitable only for permanent storage.

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 this 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.

PEDOT-based machine could solve the problem of virus hackers, who rely on the fact they cannot afford to leave a trace out of fear of being caught for their dirty work. With PEDOT-based solutions, hackers would not be able to erase their IP addresses. Instead of rewriting over existing data, PEDOT would just create a static section for incoming data. This ensures that the integrity of data on documents is preserved over long periods of time.

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14.

LIMITATIONS OF PLASTIC MEMORY

The dimension demands on devices increasingly get smaller to host a variety of form factors. Smaller memory space means the transistors leak more electricity and suck up more power.

It can be read many times but it can be write only ones. The biggest challenge is developing production technique. This technology is still under research, so it will take about 5yrs to launch in the market.

But turning plastic memory into a commercial product wont be easy. Memory technologies compete not only on storage capacity but on speed, energy consumption and reliability. The difficulty is in meeting all the requirements of current silicon memory chips. The plastic memory made at Bell Labs is still relatively slow by silicon standards, and anticipated capacity is only on the order of a kilobit.

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15. APPLICATIONS OF PLASTIC MEMORY

Flash memory stores data electrically, in specially designed silicon transistors. Information can be recorded and read quickly and is retained even when the power is off. This makes flash ideal for MP3 players, cameras, memory cards, and USB drives.

The plastic memory technology promises to store more data at less cost than the expensiveto-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets including digital cameras, cell phones and portable music players. The memory cannot be rewritten, but can be read very fast and with low power consumption. So this would be suitable only for permanent storage. 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 this 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. PEDOT-based machine could solve the problem of virus hackers, who rely on the fact they cannot afford to leave a trace out of fear of being caught for their dirty work. With PEDOT-based solutions, hackers would not be able to erase their IP addresses. Instead of rewriting over existing data, PEDOT would just create a static section for incoming data. This ensures that the integrity of data on documents is preserved over long periods of time.

Polymer devices can be used in data storage devices and also as a switch whose state can be changed externally by a voltage pulse.

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16. FUTURE SCOPE

Cost per MB will here become so low that true disposable memory chips can be envisaged. One report says that this technology could take flash card prices to 10 per cent of what they are today. By 2004, Coatue hopes to have memory chips on the market that can store 32 gigabits, outperforming flash memory, which should hold about two gigabits by then, to produce a three dimensional structure.

One can imagine what this would mean to laptops (same footprint, but gigabytes of space and RAM), mobile phones (more and more phone numbers and SMS messages), PDAs (more e-mail, more addresses, and more notes), digital cameras (more and better pictures per card, and the cards are cheap!). Evidently, for the cost of a few cents, a Norwegian company can produce a memory module with a capacity of up to 170,000 gigabytes, which could fit on a bank card. One likely use is in disposable electronics, where cost, rather than performance, is the deciding factor. Researchers at Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories are working on plastic memory devices for use in identification tags.

As plastic memory technology advances, it could pave the way to computers made entirely of plastic electronic components, from the display to the logic chip. That may be decades off, but as researchers push the bounds of polymers, the vision seems less far-fetched.

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17.

GOAL OF PLASTIC MEMORY

The goal is to make the technology fast enough to store video. The researchers hope that this technology will decrease the size, increase reliability and speed up reading and writing of memory chips.

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18. CONCLUSION
The fundamental strength i.e., the stacking of memory layers which yields maximum storage capacity in a given footprint is the main reason why Plastic memory is highly preferred. The nonvolatileness and other features are in built in molecular level and offers very high advantages in terms of cost. Polymers ,which are once considered to be the main reason for pollution and referred to be removed from the earth, has found a new area of utilization.

Plastic memory is much cheaper and faster than the existing silicon a circuit was invented by Researchers at Princeton University working with Hewlett- Packard. Plastic memory is a combination of materials that could lower the cost and boost the density of electronic memory. It is an all-organic memory system with manifold advantages: in speed, production, energy consumption, storage capacity and cost. The memory cannot be rewritten, but can be read very fast and with low power consumption. So this would be suitable only for permanent storage.

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19. REFERENCES

1. A. Lendlein and S. Kelch, "Shape-Memory Polymer". Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., WILEY, Weinheim, 2002, pp. 2034-2057. 2. M. Irie, Shape memory material; K. Otuka and C.M.Wayman, Eds., Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1998, pp. 203-219. 3. M.Ishii, Development of shape-memory polymers; M. Irie, Eds. CMC, Tokyo, 2000, pp. 10-29 (in Japanese). 4. Y. Chujo, K. Sada, and T. Saegusa, "Reversible Gelation of Polyoxazoline by Means of DielsAlder Reaction" Macromolecules, Am.Chem.Soc. Columbus, 1990, pp. 2636-2641. [CrossRef] 5. X. Chen, M. A. Dam, K. Ono, A. Mal, H. Shen, S. R. Nutt, K. Sheran, and F. Wudl, "A Thermally Re-mendable Cross-Linked Polymeric Material", Science, AAAS, Washington DC, 2002, pp. 1698-1702. [CrossRef] 6. MIT Technology Review 09 / 02 Plastic memory 7. MIT Technology Review 03 / 02 Improved Memory 8. www.ieee.org 9. www.technologyreview.com 10. www.internetnews.com 11. www.findarticles.com

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