July 30, 2011 Scientists show that non-volatile memory made from
a sandwich of silver nanoparticle-laced plastic retains its
on/off state over a wider voltage range when operating at toasty
temperatures. Plastics are cheap, flexible, and relatively easy
to manufacture, but they can also be more heat sensitive than
other materials such as metals. The same goes for plastic (or
organic) electronics, which offer the promise of foldable
displays or thin, inexpensive devices, but react to temperature
swings differently than traditional silicon-based electronics.
So, researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University decided
to explore this temperature-dependent behavior more closely.
They took a non-volatile organic memory transistor, made from
the plastic pentacene and a layer of silver nanoparticles, and
heated the device to 90 degrees Celsius. After initial heating,
the distribution of nanoparticles changed, with particles
clumping together in larger groups. Also, the memory window of
the device -- the voltage