Resistive Polymer Memory Materials Containing Electron Donor and Acceptor Moieties

Abstract

Two series of polymers including polyimides and poly(aryl ether)s were prepared and used as active layers of polymer memories. The poly(aryl ether)-based polymers showed flash behaviors and polyimide-based polymers showed WORM behaviors. The poly(aryl ether)s flash memories can be negatively switched on and positively switched off, and the switching voltages are relative to the chemical structure of bisphenol moiety. On the other hand, the polyimide-based polymer devices can be bidirectionally switched on with comparable positive and negative switching threshold voltages, but cannot be switched off. The polyimides showed write-once-and-read- many-times (WORM) memory behavior. The poly(aryl ether) (AZTA-PAEb) showed very different memory behavior from polyimides (AZTA-PI and AZTA-PEI) although they contain the similar chemical structure (electron-donor triphenylamine and electron-acceptor triazine moieties). The imide structure in the polyimides plays a great role in the memory effects.