Photoerasable Organic Field-Effect Transistor Memory Based on a One-Step Solution-Processed Hybrid Floating Gate Layer

Photoerasable memories based on the organic field-effect transistor (OFET) have aroused great interest due to the advantages and potential applications, such as the erasure of confidential information. However, the complex manufacturing process of OFET memories is not conducive to large-scale production and market applications in the future. In this paper, the photoerasable memories are prepared by a simple solution process to disperse [6,6]-phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) in poly­(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) thin films as a hybrid floating gate layer. The OFET memory devices present fast electrical programmable and photoerasable characteristics on the basis of matching energy band structure. With an optimal blending ratio of PCBM/PMMA, the memories present a long data retention time of 12 000 s during retention tests and a stable on/off drain-source current (I_DS) switching behavior over 800 cycles during repeated erasing–reading–programming–reading (ERPR) cycling tests. A 2-bit storage capability is also obtained in the memories by trapping different numbers of holes. These characteristics of easy-to-manufacture and photoerasable memories are expected to open up new areas in the field of information storage.