Engineered Fullerene Molecules for Flash Memory Charge Storage
- Detailed Technology Description
- Engineered fullerene molecules (EFMs) have been synthesized and used inflash memory devices to greatly improve performance.
- Others
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Patent application: 20120012919
- *Abstract
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Engineered fullerene molecules (EFMs) have been synthesized and used inflash memory devices to greatly improve performance. Fullerenes aremolecules entirely composed of carbon, in the form of a hollow sphere,ellipsoid or tube. This new molecular engineering work to synthesize andincorporate EFM represents an advancement from a previous invention (Cornell D4602) inwhich C60 spherical fullerene molecules (i.e. buckyballs) were introduced in the gate stack to improve speed and power requirements of non-volatilememory.
In both cases the fullerene molecules (buckyballs or EFM) act as steppingstones in the dielectric, to facilitate faster transfer of electrons betweenthe floating gate and the transistor. The introduction of EFMs creates newfeatures and helps overcome scaling barriers with existing flash memorydesigns.
Specifically, the new EFM-based design enables the effective tuning ofmolecular energy levels, based on selection of different molecules. Theprogram and gate erase voltages can be adjusted and gate barrier propertiesmodified to accommodate scaling limitations of conventional charge-based flashmemory devices. EFMs are also more soluble in the buffer media, which enablesfull-wafer coating, and therefore better homogeneity, compared to vapordeposition processes used with basic fullerene molecules.
Potential Applications:
- Nonvolatile memory
- Hybrid molecular-silicon electronics
Advantages:
- Manufactured via standard full-wafer coating processes for better homogeneity
- Tunable to different energy levels
- *Licensing
- Martin Teschlmt439@cornell.edu(607) 254-4454
- Country/Region
- USA
