Controlled growth of a graphene charge-floating gate for organic non-volatile memory transistors

Abstract

We report memory application for graphene as a floating gate in organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) structure. For graphene floating gate, we demonstrate a simpler synthesis method to form a discrete graphene layer by controlling the growth time during a conventional CVD process. The resulting organic memory transistor with the discrete graphene charge-storage layer is evaluated. The device was demonstrated based on solution-processed tunneling dielectric layers and evaporated pentacene organic semiconductor. The resulting devices exhibited programmable memory characteristics, including threshold voltage shifts (similar to 28 V) in the programmed/erased states when an appropriate gate voltage was applied. They also showed an estimated long data retention ability and program/erase cycles endurance more than 100 times with reliable non-volatile memory properties although operated without encapsulation and in an ambient condition. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.