Flexible memory brings ‘bendable and attachable’ computers ‘closer to reality’

Researchers at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (KAIST) have developed a fully functional flexible memory, which has been a challenge in the realization of flexible electronics.

The team led by Professor Keon Jae Lee created the fully functional flexible non-volatile resistive random access memory (RRAM) where a memory cell can be randomly accessed, written, and erased on a plastic substrate.

Although several flexible memory materials have been reported, these devices could not overcome cell-to-cell interference due to their structural and material limitations.

Now, Prof. Lee’s research team has developed a fully functional flexible memory that is not affected by cell-to-cell interference.

They solved the cell-to-cell interference issue by integrating a memristor (a recently spotlighted memory material as next-generation memory elements) with a high-performance single-crystal silicon transistor on flexible substrates.

Utilizing these two advanced technologies, they successfully demonstrated that all memory functions in a matrix memory array worked perfectly.

“This result represents an exciting technology with the strong potential to realize all flexible electronic systems for the development of a freely bendable and attachable computer in the near future,” Prof. Lee concluded.

This result was published in the October online issue of the Nano Letters ACS journal.