PLASTIC MEMORY

1 INTRODUCTION
A new form of permanent computer memory which uses plastic and is much cheaper and
faster than the existing silicon circuits was invented by Researchers at Princeton
University working with Hewlett-Packard.

This new memory technology is created by using a conducting plastic which has the
potential to store a megabit of data in a millimeter-square device - 10 times denser than
current magnetic memories.

This utilizes a previously unknown property of a cheap, transparent plastic called PEDOT
- short for polyethylenedioxythiophene. The inventors say that data densities as high as a
megabit per square millimeter can be possible. By stacking layers of memory, a cubic
centimeter device could hold as much as a gigabyte and be cheap enough to compete with
CDs and DVD.

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2 MEMORY
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

UKAM SRAM NVKAM FlaA EfcTSOM BPROM PROM Nuked

Figure 1: Common memory types in embedded systems

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3 TYPES OF 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 fore ver.
DRAM, on the other hand, has an extremely short data lifetime-typically about four
milliseconds. This is true even when power is applied constantly.

In short, SRAM has all the properties of the memory you think of when you
hear the word RAM. Compared to that, DRAM seems useless. However, a simple piece
of hardware called a DRAM controller can be used to make DRAM behave more
like SRAM. The job of the DRAM controller is to periodically refresh the data
stored in the DRAM. By refreshing the data before it expires, the contents of
memory can be kept
alive for as long as they are needed. So DRAM is also as useful as SRAM.

When deciding which type of RAM to use, a system designer must

consider access time and cost. SRAM devices offer extremely fast access times
(approximately four times faster than DRAM) but are much more expensive to
produce. Generally, SRAM is used only where access speed is extremely important. A
lower cost-per-byte makes DRAM attractive whenever large amounts of RAM are
required. Many embedded systems include both types: a small block of SRAM (a
few kilobytes) along a critical data path and a much larger block of dynamic random
access memory (perhaps even in Megabytes) for everything else.

Thus DRAM can only hold data for a short period of time and must be
refreshed periodically. DRAMs are measured by storage capability and access time.

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Storage is rated in megabytes (8MB. 16MB etc). Access time is rated in
nanoseconds (60ns, 70ns. 80ns, etc) and represents the amount of time to save or
return information. With a 60ns DRAM, it would require 60 billionth of a second to
save or return information. The lower the nano speed, the faster the memory
operates.

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4 TYPES OF 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.
The very first ROMs were hardwired devices that contained a
preprogrammed set of data or instructions. The contents of the ROM had to be
specified before chip production, so the actual data could be used to arrange the
transistors inside the chip.
Hardwired memories are still used, though they are now called masked ROMs to
distinguish them from other types of ROM. The primary advantage of a masked
ROM is its low production cost. Unfortunately, the cost is low only when large
quantities of the same ROM are required.
One step up from the masked ROM is the PROM (programmable ROM), which is
purchased in an unprogrammed state. If you were to look at the contents of an
unprogrammed PROM, you would see that the data is made up entirely of l's. The
process of writing your data to the PROM involves a special piece of equipment
called a device programmer. 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, the current device must be
discarded. As a result, PROMs are also known as one-time programmable (OTP)
devices.
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. (A window in the top of the device allows the light to re ach the
silicon.) By doing this, you essentially reset the entire chip to its initial
unprogrammed state. Though more expensive than PROMs, their ability to be
reprogrammed makes EPROMs an essential part of the software development
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HYBRIDS

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.

EEPROMs are electrically-erasable-and-programmable. Internally, they are

similar to EPROMs, but the erase operation is accomplished electrically, rather than
by exposure to ultraviolet light. 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. The primary tradeoff for this improved functionality is higher cost ,
though write cycles are also significantly longer than writes to a RAM. So you
wouldn't want to use an EEPROM for your main system memory.

Flash memory combines the best features of the memory devices described so far.

Flash memory devices are high density, low cost, nonvolatile, fast (to read, but not to
write), and electrically reprogrammable.

Flash memory is a solid-state, non-volatile, rewritable memory that functions

like RAM and a hard disk combined. If power is lost, all data remains in memor
y. Because of its high speed, durability, and low voltage requirements, it is ideal
for digital cameras, cell phones, printers, handheld computers, pagers and audio
recorders.

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These advantages are overwhelming and, as a direct result, the use of flash
memory has increased dramatically in embedded systems. From a software
viewpoint, flash and EEPROM technologies are very similar. The major difference is
that flash devices can only be erased one sector at a time, not byte-by-byte. Typical
sector sizes are in the range 256 bytes to 16KB. Despite this disadvantage, flash is
much more popular than EEPROM and is rapidly displacing many of the ROM
devices as well.

The third member of the hybrid memory class is NVRAM (non-volatile RAM).

Nonvolatility 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.

However, it is expensive, even more expensive than SRAM, because of the

battery. So its applications are typically limited to the storage of a few hundred bytes of
system-critical information that can't be stored in any better way.

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 Hewlett-Packard. This memory is technically a hybrid that contains a
plastic film, a flexible foil substrate and some silicon.

The discovery, achieved by HP and Princeton researchers in Forrest's university

laboratory, came during work with a polymer material called PEDOT - a clear^
conducting plastic used as coating on photographic film and as electrical contact on
video displays.
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It was Princeton postdoctoral researcher Steven Moller, now with Hewlett

Packard, who found that Pedot conducts electricity at low voltages but permanently
loses its conductivity when exposed to higher electrical currents, making it act like a
circuit breaker.

This conducting plastic has the potential to store a megabit of data in a millimeter-
square device - 10 times denser than current magnetic memories.

Figure2: Plastic memory

A voltage applied to a given cell can modify the organic nature of the
polymer at that spot, changing it from one state to another. And that state can be
read at a later I time.

PEDOT when combined with thin-film silicon transistors can store data like a
CD and will serve as a conventional electronic memory chip, plugging right into
an electronic circuit with no moving parts.

In the new scheme, a single memory cell consists of a layer of thin sheet of

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polymer sandwiched between gold and an aluminum electrode. In the polymer's
original state, positive charges carry current through the material.
To encode data in a cell, the researchers apply a voltage, which injects
electrons into the polymer. Positive charges from the gold electrode then flood the
material to neutralize the electrons.

The movement of charge, which occurs in about a microsecond, permanently

switches the polymer from a conducting to a nonconducting state-or from 0 to 1, in
computer terminology. To read each cell, the researchers apply a smaller voltage.
With the help of a silicon diode that electrically isolates the cell f rom nearby
ones; they then measure the current flowing through the cell

In using Pedot as a storage medium, a device would use a grid of circuits in

which all of the connections contain a Pedot fuse. With the introduction of high
voltages, the fuses would blow and represent the zeros while unblown fuses would
represent the ones that make up computerized data and digital images.

Researchers believe the invention could be the basis for a grid of memory
circuits so small that a megabit, or 1 million bits of information, could fit on a
square millimeter of paper-thin material.

When put together in a block, the plastic device could store more than one
gigabyte of information, the equivalent of 1,000 high-quality images in one cubic
centimeter - about the size of a fingertip

The advantage is that we can stack the devices on top of each other.A 1
centimeter cube model device that, in theory, could store 10 gigabits of data, or
about double the amount on a CD-ROM.
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

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

The plastic 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 that of writing. 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 as compared to non-volatile memory, NAND flash, where the erase before
write may be of orders of magnitude slower than the read. In the non-destructive
read mode the thin film memory speed is comparable to or better than DRAM read
speed.

Stacking is the fundamental strength of plastic memory technology. The thin film
memory system is expandable. By the addition of new layers, manufacturers will
be able to gain previously unattainable storage capacity within a given footprint.

There are no power-consuming mechanical parts in the thin film system.

Furthermore, the polymer memory cells are non-volatile, no refresh (as in DRAM) is
required, nor any voltage required from an external power supply to maintain
information (as in SRAM). Polymers are robust by nature.

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The polymer memory developed by thin film technology has undergone stringent
reliability tests at temperatures between -40 and 1 10°C. The results underline the
exceptional stability of the polymer memory and compliance with military and
commercial standard tests.
In the thin film system, there is no need of transistors in the memory cells,
a substantial simplification compared to stateof the art memory designs.
The interesting fact about this idea is its density. Today, a typical S-RAM
memory cell takes up between four and six square micrometers of area. By
comparison, thin film says that their polymer cells would each occupy but one quarter of
a square micrometer - quite a difference.
The scientists say thin film device could be used to produce a single-use
memory card that permanently stores data and is faster and easier to operate than a
CD.The card would not involve any moving parts, such as the laser and motor drive
required by compact discs. Its secret is the discovery of a previously unknown
property of a commonly used conducting plastic coating. US scientists at Princeton
University, New Jersey, and computer giants Hewlett-Packard combined the polymer
with thin-film, silicon-based electronics.

The device would be like a standard CD-R (CD-recordable) disc in that

writing data onto it makes permanent changes and can only be done once. But it would
also resemble a computer memory chip, because it would plug directly into an
electronic circuit and have no moving parts.

PEDOT, which is clear and conducts electricity, has been used for years as an
anti-static coating on photographic film. Researchers looked at ways of using PEDOT
to store digital information. In the new memory card, data in the form of ones and
zeroes would be represented by polymer pixels.

When information is recorded, higher voltages at certain points in the circuit

grid would "blow" the PEDOT fuses at those points. As a result, data is

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permanently etched into the device. A blown fuse would be read as a zero; while an
unblown one that lets current passes through is read as a one. The team predicts that
one million bits of information could lit 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.

PEDOT
PEDOT is an unusual plastic because it conducts electricity, a property that's
led to it being used for antistatic coatings. However, a sufficiently large pulse of
current changes it permanently to a nonconducting state, just like a fuse.

It conducts electricity at low voltages, but operates as a semiconductor at higher

voltages. The material is a blend of a negatively-charged polymer called PSS- and a
positively-charged one called PEDT+. Having distinct charged components enable it to
conduct electricity and means it is water soluble.

The team is not sure why it stops conducting when high currents pass
through. But according to the Princeton researcher Stephen Forrest, he 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 stabilize it, PED+ in turn grabs on to

an extra electron and also becomes neutral, converting PEDOT into an insulating
polymer. In this, bits are written when a current passes through a polymer fuse,
causing it to blow and change its conductivity. This involves applying a lower
voltage to PEDOT to change its resistance to the conducting material which pushes it
into a state of high resistance in which we can store the digital information as ones
and zeros.

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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 also called WORM-write once, read many times-
technology.

To store the memory, the researchers use the wires and the diode surrounding
1 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. By
building a grid of intersecting wires they can read and write multiple bits to one
device. Here, the result will be an all-organic memory system with manifold
advantages: in speed, production, energy consumption, storage capacity and cost.

Thus the researchers of Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard invented a

combination of materials that could lower the cost and boost the density of electronic
memory.

In the new plastic device, each cell measures 17 square microns. However,
researchers predicts that there is room for improvement and their team could get that
dimension down to just a couple hundred nanometers. In the future, a small, cube-
shaped device could sit in a digital camera and permanently store thousands of
photos.

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5 COMPARISON OF PLASTIC MEMORY

WITH FLASH MEMORY

1 - Plastic memory is fast. Plastic memory-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 read, l-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 the silicon-based
memory. 4 - It can be stacked vertically in a product, yielding 3D space usage;
silicon chips can only be set beside each other.
5 - It has very low power consumption.

6 - The control circuitry only occupies 1-5% of total area occupied by transistors.

7 - It maintains memory even when the power is turned off.

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6 ADVANTAGES

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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7 LIMITATIONS OF FLASH 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.

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8 FUTURE SCOPE
The goal is to make the technology fast enough to store video. The hope
that this technology will decrease the size, increase reliability and speed up reading
and writing of memory chips.
Replacing Flash Memory:
Plastic memory could replace flash memory in many applications due to its
potential for higher speed, lower power consumption, and greater endurance.

High-Density Storage:
Polymer memories could enable high-density data storage, crucial for applications
like data centers and personal devices.

Flexible Electronics:
Plastic memory's flexible nature opens up possibilities for integrating it into
flexible displays, wearables, and other bendable devices.

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9 CONCLUSION
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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10 REFERENCES
Books
[1] Lee, M. H., & Cho, B. K. (2018). Emerging Nonvolatile Memories: From
Fundamentals to Applications. Springer.
[2] Waser, R., & Aono, M. (2006). Nanoelectronics and Information Technology.
Wiley-VCH.
Journal Articles
[3] Li, C., Chen, Z., Wang, M., Sun, Y., & Huang, W. (2023). Plastic memory for
next-generation nonvolatile memory. Nano Energy, 103, 107715.
[4] Kim, H. J., Park, J. H., Kim, S. J., & Kwon, S. K. (2018). Polymer-based
resistive switching memory for flexible electronics. Advanced Materials, 30(46),
1803300.
Conference Papers
[5] Choi, B. J., Park, J. H., & Kim, J. Y. (2022). Recent advances in plastic memory
for flexible and wearable electronics. Proceedings of the IEEE International
Conference on Flexible and Printed Electronics.
Technical Reports
[6] International Roadmap for Devices and Systems. (2021). Emerging Research
Devices. [Technical report]. Retrieved from https://irds.ieee.org/
Websites
[7] ScienceDaily. (2023). Plastic Memory: A New Era of Electronics?. Retrieved
from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230314113328.htm

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