Skin-like health care patches (SHPs) are next-generation health care gadgets that will enable seamless monitoring of biological signals in daily life. Skin-conformable sensors and a stretchable display are critical for the development of standalone SHPs that provide real-time information while alleviating privacy concerns related to wireless data transmission. However, the production of stretchable wearable displays with sufficient pixels to display this information remains challenging. Here, we report a standalone organic SHP that provides real-time heart rate information. The 15-μm-thick SHP comprises a stretchable organic light-emitting diode display and stretchable organic photoplethysmography (PPG) heart rate sensor on all-elastomer substrate and operates stably under 30% strain using a combination of stress relief layers and deformable micro-cracked interconnects that reduce the mechanical stress on the active optoelectronic components. This approach provides a rational strategy for high-resolution stretchable displays, enabling the production of ideal platforms for next-generation wearable health care electronics.

Novel digital memory devices were fabricated with a thermally and dimensionally stable polyimide containing carbazole moieties in its side groups by using a simple and conventional solution coating process. The devices exhibit excellent unipolar ON and OFF switching behavior. With very low power consumption, the devices can be repeatedly written, read, and erased in air. The ON/OFF current ratio of the devices is high up to 1011. The high ON/OFF switching ratio and stability of the devices, as well as their repeatable writing, reading, and erasing capability with low power consumption, open up the possibility of the mass production of high performance non‐volatile memory devices at low cost.

We have synthesized a new thermally and dimensionally stable polyimide, poly(4,4'-amino(4-hydroxyphenyl)diphenylene hexafluoroisopropylidenediphthalimide) (6F-HTPA PI). 6F-HTPA PI is soluble in organic solvents and is thus easily processed with conventional solution coating techniques to produce good quality nanoscale thin films. Devices fabricated with nanoscale thin PI films with thicknesses less than 77 nm exhibit excellent unipolar write-once-read-many-times (WORM) memory behavior with a high ON/OFF current ratio of up to 10(6), a long retention time and low power consumption, less than +/-3.0 V. Furthermore, these WORM characteristics were found to persist even at high temperatures up to 150 degrees C. The WORM memory behavior was found to be governed by trap-limited space-charge limited conduction and local filament formation. The conduction processes are dominated by hole injection. Thus the hydroxytriphenylamine moieties of the PI polymer might play a key role as hole trapping sites in the observed WORM memory behavior. The properties of 6F-HTPA PI make it a promising material for high-density and very stable programmable permanent data storage devices with low power consumption.

This study reports the synthesis and properties (in particular, the electrical switching characteristics) of a new high-performance polyimide (PI), poly(3,3'-di(4-(diphenylamino)benzylidenyliminoethoxy)-4,4'-biphenylene hexafluoroisopropylidenediphthalimide) (6F-HAB-TPAIE PI). This PI polymer bears diphenylaminobenzylidenylimine moieties as side groups and is dimensionally stable up to 280 degrees C and thermally stable up to 440 degrees C. In devices fabricated with the PI polymer as an active memory layer, the active PI polymer was found to operate at less than +/-2 V in electrically bistable unipolar and bipolar switching modes by controlling the compliance current. The PI polymer layer exhibits repeatable writing-reading-erasing capability with high reliability in ambient air conditions as well as at high temperatures up to 130 degrees C. This PI polymer also exhibits a high ON/OFF current ratio up to 10(9). The observed nonvolatile memory behaviors are due to Schottky emission and local filament formation. This study has demonstrated that this thermally, dimensionally stable PI polymer is a promising material for mass production at low cost for high-performance, programmable, nonvolatile memory devices that can be operated with low power consumption in unipolar and bipolar switching modes.

This paper reports for the first time the programmable digital memory characteristics of the nanoscale thin films of a fully π-conjugated polymer, poly(diethyl dipropargylmalonate) (pDEDPM) in the absence of doping. This π-conjugated polymer was found to exhibit good solubility in organic solvents and to be easily processed to form nanoscale thin films through the use of conventional solution spin-, roll-, or dip-coating and subsequent drying. Films of the π-conjugated polymer with top and bottom metal electrodes exhibit excellent dynamic random access memory (DRAM) characteristics or write-once-read-many-times (WORM) memory behavior without polarity, depending on the film thickness. All the PI films are initially present in the OFF-state. Films with a thickness of 30 nm were found to exhibit very stable WORM memory characteristics without polarity and an ON/OFF current ratio of 10 6 , whereas films with a thickness of 62-120 nm were found to exhibit excellent DRAM characteristics without polarity and an ON/OFF current ratio as high as 10 8 . These memory characteristics are governed by trap-limited space-charge limited conduction and heterogeneously local filament formation. In these polymer films, both the ester units and the conjugated double bonds of the polymer backbone can act as charge trapping sites. The excellent bistable switching properties and processibility of this π-conjugated polymer mean that it is a promising material for the low-cost mass production of high density and very stable digital nonvolatile WORM memory and volatile DRAM devices.

A new electrontransport polymer, poly{[N,N′‐dioctylperylene‐3,4,9,10‐bis(dicarboximide)‐1,7(6)‐diyl]‐alt‐[(2,5‐bis(2‐ethyl‐hexyl)‐1,4‐phenylene)bis(ethyn‐2,1‐diyl]} (PDIC8‐EB), is synthesized. In chloroform, the polymer undergoes self‐assembly, forming a nanowire suspension. The nanowire's optical and electrochemical properties, morphological structure, and field‐effect transistor (FET) characteristics are investigated. Thin films fabricated from a PDIC8‐EB nanowire suspension are composed of ordered nanowires and ordered and amorphous non‐nanowire phases, whereas films prepared from a homogeneous PDIC8‐EB solution consist of only the ordered and amorphous non‐nanowire phases. X‐ray scattering experiments suggest that in both nanowires and ordered phases, the PDIC8 units are laterally stacked in an edge‐on manner with respect to the film plane, with full interdigitation of the octyl chains, and with the polymer backbones preferentially oriented within the film plane. The ordering and orientations are significantly enhanced through thermal annealing at 200 °C under inert conditions. The polymer film with high degree of structural ordering and strong orientation yields a high electron mobility (0.10 ± 0.05 cm2 V−1 s−1), with a high on/off ratio (3.7 × 106), a low threshold voltage (8 V), and negligible hysteresis (0.5 V). This study demonstrates that the polymer in the nanowire suspension provides a suitable material for fabricating the active layers of high‐performance n‐channel FET devices via a solution coating process.

We have fabricated electrically programmable memory devices with thermally and dimensionally stable poly(N-(N',N'-diphenyl-N'-1,4-phenyl)-N,N-4,4'-diphenylene hexafluoroisopropylidene-diphthalimide) (6F-2TPA PI) films and investigated their switching characteristics and reliability. 6F-2TPA PI films were found to reveal a conductivity of 1.0 x 10(-13)-1.0 x 10(-14) S cm(-1). The 6F-2TPA PI films exhibit versatile memory characteristics that depend on the film thickness. All the PI films are initially present in the OFF state. The PI films with a thickness of >15 to <100 nm exhibit excellent write-once-read-many-times (WORM) (i.e. fuse-type) memory characteristics with and without polarity depending on the thickness. The WORM memory devices are electrically stable, even in air ambient, for a very long time. The devices' ON/OFF current ratio is high, up to 10(10). Therefore, these WORM memory devices can provide an efficient, low-cost means of permanent data storage. On the other hand, the 100 nm thick PI films exhibit excellent dynamic random access memory (DRAM) characteristics with polarity. The ON/OFF current ratio of the DRAM devices is as high as 10(11). The observed electrical switching behaviors were found to be governed by trap-limited space-charge-limited conduction and local filament formation and further dependent on the differences between the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy levels of the PI film and the work functions of the top and bottom electrodes as well as the PI film thickness. In summary, the excellent memory properties of 6F-2TPA PI make it a promising candidate material for the low-cost mass production of high density and very stable digital nonvolatile WORM and volatile DRAM memory devices.

A novel polymer, poly(2-(N -carbazolyl)ethyl methacrylate) end-capped with fullerene (PCzMA-C(60) ), has been synthesized via living anionic polymerization. Electrically programmable flash memory devices were easily fabricated with this polymer by using solution coating and metal deposition. This polymer was found in these devices to exhibit bipolar and unipolar switching behaviors with a high ON/OFF current ratio, a long retention time, high reliability, and low power consumption. The excellent properties and easy processability of this polymer open up the possibility of the mass production of high performance nonvolatile memory devices at low cost.