High performance, foldable, organic memories based on ultra-low voltage, thin film transistors

We report on the fabrication of highly flexible OTFT-based memory elements with excellent mechanical stability and high retention time. The devices have been fabricated using a combination of two ultrathin AlOx and Parylene C as dielectric, and TIPS-Pentacene as the semiconductor, obtaining high performing low voltage transistors with mobility up to 0.4 cm(2)/V s, and I-on/I-off ratio of 10(5). Charge trapping in the Parylene C electret layer is the mechanism that allows employing these devices as non volatile memory elements, with retention time as high as 4 x 10(5) s. The electromechanical characterization demonstrated that such memory elements can be cyclically bent around a cylinder with a radius of 150 mu m without losing the stored data. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.