Chinese researchers have proposed a carbon nanotube non-volatile memory based on aluminum nanocrystalline floating gate, which provides a new device design method for wearable electronics and special environmental detection systems.
This is expected to be applied to a new generation of artificial vision system integrating detection, storage and processing, according toย Science and Technology Daily.
The research was carried out by researchers from the Shenyang National Materials Science Research Center of the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in cooperation with a number of Chinese institutions.
Carbon nanotubes are one of the most important scientific discoveries in the field of materials science in the past 30 years. They have excellent physical and chemical properties such as electrical, optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. They are ideal bendable and stretchable semiconductor building materials.
It is suitable for constructing new flexible electronic devices and optoelectronic device systems, and can show the electrical, light, force, heat and response characteristics of external changes that traditional bulk materials do not have. In wearable flexible electronic devices, etc. Has unique advantages and potential.
In modern electronic systems, charge-coupled devices and charge-storage devices have developed along their own paths as two independent branches, but carbon-based prototype devices that have both photoelectric sensing and storage functions have not been reported.
During the research, researchers proposed a new method of charge storage. By preparing uniformly dispersed aluminum nanoparticles, an ultra-thin alumina charge tunneling layer was obtained, thereby realizing the tunneling mechanism of charge by Fowler-Nord The Heim tunnel becomes a direct tunnel.
This new type of charge storage device constructed using semiconductor carbon nanotubes can both be regulated by applying a voltage signal and can also respond quickly to light signals.
The device prepared by it has high current switching ratio, long-term storage function, good flexibility, and stable read and write operations.
In the past, devices that used thin-film floating gates and tunneling layers usually did not have good flexibility and stability, and would also generate greater power consumption.
The storage time of the new device is up to 10 years. A number of discrete aluminum nanocrystalline floating gate devices have stable and flexible operating performance, thereby realizing a new type of multi-function in the direct conversion and transmission of photoelectric signals, image sensing and image storage Photoelectric sensing and storage system.
Researcher Sun Dongming of the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that the successful preparation of new sensing and storage devices can be further applied to artificial vision systems to simulate human eye image perception and memory functions.
This is expected to break through the technical bottlenecks of graphics processors based on traditional CMOS technology in terms of capacity, integration, speed, etc., and lay the foundation for the development of new flexible light detection and storage devices.
This research was jointly completed by researchers from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou Institute of Nanotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jilin University.
Schematic diagram of new device design and structure.
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