Nonvolatile memory technologies in Si-based electronics date back to the 1990s. Ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) was one of the most promising devices replacing the conventional Flash memory facing physical scaling limitations at those times. A variant of charge storage memory referred to as Flash memory is widely used in consumer electronic products such as cell phones and music players while NAND Flash-based solid-state disks (SSDs) are increasingly displacing hard disk drives as the primary storage device in laptops, desktops, and even data centers. The integration limit of Flash memories is approaching, and many new types of memory to replace conventional Flash memories have been proposed. Emerging memory technologies promise new memories to store more data at less cost than the expensive-to-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets including digital cameras, cell phones and portable music players. They are being investigated and lead to the future as potential alternatives to existing memories in future computing systems. Emerging nonvolatile memory technologies such as magnetic random-access memory (MRAM), spin-transfer torque random-access memory (STT-RAM), ferroelectric random-access memory (FeRAM), phase-change memory (PCM), and resistive random-access memory (RRAM) combine the speed of static random-access memory (SRAM), the density of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and the nonvolatility of Flash memory and so become very attractive as another possibility for future memory hierarchies. Many other new classes of emerging memory technologies such as transparent and plastic, three-dimensional (3-D), and quantum dot memory technologies have also gained tremendous popularity in recent years. Subsequently, not an exaggeration to say that computer memory could soon earn the ultimate commercial validation for commercial scale-up and production the cheap plastic knockoff. Therefore, this review is devoted to the rapidly developing new class of memory technologies and scaling of scientific procedures based on an investigation of recent progress in advanced Flash memory devices.

Electronic displays and flexible electronics are poised to significantly impact emerging industries, including displays, energy products, sensors and medical devices, building a market that will significantly grow in the future. The implementation of transparent electronic devices requires the use of material components that could be formed using controlled deposition in the appropriate orientation onto a transparent flexible substrate. Here, we report a simple and efficient means of depositing onto a flexible polyimide (PI) substrate a highly ordered and highly aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) film for use as a carrier transporting and semiconducting layer with controlled surface charge density for thin-film transistor (TFT) applications.The deposition approach is based on the solution-coating of a zinc-acetate suspension under controlled conditions of the spread flow rate, droplet size of the drops, speed limit, and the oxygen (ca. O 2 ) plasma treatment of the coated film surface on the PI substrate. The plasma surface interactions on the surface states of the ZnO films for various times (ca. 1-5 min) were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Moreover, the effects of O 2 plasma and the subsequent thermal annealing in an O 2 atmosphere at 250 C on the properties of ZnO films were studied for its efficacy in TFT applications in terms of the charge carrier density and the change in the mobility. ZnO thin-film-based TFTs on PI exhibited a very high electron mobility of 22.8 cm 2 V À1 s À1 at a drain bias of 5 V after treatment with O 2 plasma for 2 min. Furthermore, the plasma treatment for long durations of time caused a reduction in the charge carrier density from 1.58 Â 10 19 cm À3 for the 2 min treatment to 1.13 Â 10 17 cm À3 for the 5 min treatment, and the corresponding electron mobility was changed from 22.8 and 3.1 cm 2 V À1 s À1 for the treatment times of 2 min and 5 min, respectively. The spin-coating technique used to deposit very thin ZnO films is currently used in microelectronics technology, which helps to ensure that the described ZnO thin-film deposition approach can be implemented in production lines with minimal changes in the fabrication design and in the auxiliary tools used in flexible electronics production.

Poly­(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-based piezoelectric nanogenerators, though flexible, exhibit poor stretchability and mechanical stability. This limits their application for harvesting energy from repeated deformations arising from human articular motions. Herein, we propose a simple and cost-effective approach to overcome the above issues while simultaneously enhancing the piezoelectric effect of PVDF by mixing a small amount of polyurethane (PU) in PVDF–PU nanofibers. The presence of PU in PVDF could enhance electroactive phases by up to 46%, as measured by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Interestingly, an addition of 21% of PU in PVDF exhibited both an increase in the d 33 value from 3.02 to 7.064 pm/V and stretchability to 90%. For developing a stretchable piezoelectric nanogenerator (S-PENG) device, stretchable electrodes with a 4.5 gauge factor at 100% strain were fabricated by spin-coating of poly­(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly­(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS):graphene nanoplates on a prestrained PU substrate. S-PENG produced 3.8 V, 0.65 μA, and 0.48 μW/cm2 peak open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and power density during cyclic deformation, respectively, with electrical and mechanical stability for at least 2000 cycles. Its performance was demonstrated for various human articular motions related to the knee, elbow, and foot by integrating it with wearables. The generated energy from the S-PENG could readily charge capacitors up to ∼650 mV in just 100 s. The designed S-PENGs showed great potential in harvesting energy from simple human motions.

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Layer-by-layer self-assembly of supramolecularly-modified carbon nanotubes on the elastomer polydimethylsiloxane generates transparent, conductive films that are soft, stretchable, and conformable.

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