In their quest for alternatives to silicon, chip manufacturers are increasingly turning their attention to plastic. Low-cost, easily manufactured polymers that conduct electricity could revolutionize electronics, they say. Now, researchers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif., have fabricated a polymer-based memory device for permanent data storage.
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In the new scheme, a single memory cell consists of a layer of polymer sandwiched between a gold electrode and an aluminum one. In the polymer’s original state, positive charges carry current through the material. To encode data in a cell, the researchers apply a voltage, which injects electrons into the polymer. Positive charges from the gold electrode then flood the material to neutralize the electrons.