NER: Solid Electrolytic Flash Memory Devices

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Abstract

PROPOSAL NO: 0403218 INSTITUTION: Case Western Reserve PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Tabib-Azar , Massood TITLE: NER: Solid Electrolytic Flash Memory Devices Abstract: The main objective of this exploratory study is to develop a new class of non-volatile ?memory devices based on solid-electrolytes such as CuxS and AgS These devices are based on nanometer scale metallic wires grown by passing electric currents through electrodes on thin solid-electrolyte films. Very much like mechanical switches the "1" and "0" states of the memory is given by the presence (i.e., high conductance) state or lack (i.e., low conductance) state of a metallic wire between the electrodes. The proposed devices have a simple "cross-bar" geometry that makes them ideal for very large scale integration with high yield. Non-volatile memories are an integral part of "embedded systems" with growing importance in emerging systems where operating systems are stored in non-volatile memories for easy updating. There are many other applications of the proposed studies in self-organized and forced assembly of nano-objects self-healing and programmable interconnects and break junctions and in weakly-coupled quantum particles for sensing and information processing. The proposed devices can be used to study and demonstrate real-time growth of wires with fractal geometry in optically transparent solid electrolyte films with interesting and important quantized electrical properties.