DOI: 10.1126/science.1090677. Molecular Memories That Survive Silicon Device Processing and Real-World Operation

Molecular Memories That Survive Silicon Device Processing and Real-World Operation

10.1126/science.1090677

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

If molecular components are to be used as functional elements in place of the semiconductor-based devices present in conventional microcircuitry, they must compete with semiconductors under the extreme conditions required for processing and operating a practical device. Herein, we demonstrate that porphyrin-based molecules bound to Si(100), which exhibit redox behavior useful for information storage, can meet this challenge. These molecular media in an inert atmosphere are stable under extremes of temperature (400°C) for extended periods (approaching 1 hour) and do not degrade under large numbers of read-write cycles (10 12 ).

Bibliography

Liu, Z., Yasseri, A. A., Lindsey, J. S., & Bocian, D. F. (2003). Molecular Memories That Survive Silicon Device Processing and Real-World Operation. Science, 302(5650), 1543â1545.

Authors 4

Zhiming Liu (first)
Amir A. Yasseri (additional)
Jonathan S. Lindsey (additional)
David F. Bocian (additional)

References 17 Referenced 465

10.1016/0009-2614(74)85031-1
K. S. Kwok, J. C. Ellenbogen, Mater. Today2002, 28 (2002). / Mater. Today (2002)
R. L. Carroll, C. B. Gorman, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.41, 4378 (2002). (10.1002/1521-3773(20021202)41:23<4378::AID-ANIE4378>3.0.CO;2-A) / Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2002)
International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (Semiconductor Industry Association San Jose CA 2000).
The requirement for electronic components to be stable at elevated operating temperatures stems from the facts that (i) heat dissipation in current chips causes operating temperatures to reach as high as 85°Cand (ii) these components must function in harsh external environments with extremes in temperature. The latter requirement prevails regardless of whether components can be designed wherein the intrinsic heat dissipated is small during device operation.
The fastest dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) can be randomly cycled about once every 20 ns. This time is a “row cycle time” that senses a full row of DRAM cells. A full row can be anywhere from 2000 K to 64 000 K cells depending on the device. In a computer with 10 9 memory cells it would take ∼300 μs to read the entire memory (provided that 64 K cells could be read in each 20-ns cycle). Therefore in the 10-year lifetime that is expected of modern memory ( 4 ) the entire memory could be subjected to as many as 10 12 cycles. In contrast if a memory cell could endure only 10 6 cycles every one of the 10 9 memory cells would fail in the first 10 min of operation.
K. M. Rothet al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B18, 2359 (2000). / J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B (2000)
D. Gryko et al., J. Mater. Chem.11, 1162 (2001). (10.1039/b008224o) / J. Mater. Chem. (2001)
K. M. Roth et al., Langmuir18, 4030 (2002). (10.1021/la025525e) / Langmuir (2002)
K. M. Roth et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc.125, 505 (2003). (10.1021/ja021169a) / J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2003)
A. Balakumar et al. J. Org. Chem. in press.
Deep-trench capacitors in DRAM cells typically hold ∼40 fF at 1.5 V ( 16 ). The leakage rates of these capacitors requires that the cell be refreshed at least every 100 ms. As device sizes decrease further the leakage rates will increase thereby increasing the required refresh rate. Unless longer charge-retention times can be achieved in semiconductor-based devices the refresh characteristics of the device will impose limits on the ultimate feature size. These limits may well be encountered before the device is limited by the failure of the bulk properties of semiconductors that are expected when feature sizes reach tens of nanometers ( 2 3 ). In contrast the charge-retention characteristics of porphyrins are an intrinsic molecular property. Hence the charge-retention time is independent of the size of the memory cell even for cell dimensions of tens of nanometers where each cell would contain an ensemble of many hundreds of electrically noninteracting porphyrins ( 9 ).
C. H. Choi et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc.124, 8730 (2002). (10.1021/ja012454h) / J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2002)
H. J. Callot, R. Ocampo, in The Porphyrin Handbook, K. M. Kadish, K. M. Smith, R. Guilard, Eds. (Academic, San Diego, CA, 2000), vol. 1, pp. 349–398. / The Porphyrin Handbook (2000)
J. Fajer, D. Davis, in The Porphyrins, D. Dolphin, Ed. (Academic, New York, 1978), vol. IV, pp. 197–256. / The Porphyrins (1978)
J. A. Mandelman et al., IBM J. Res. Dev.46, 187 (2002). (10.1147/rd.462.0187) / IBM J. Res. Dev. (2002)
This work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Moletronics Program (MDA972-01-C-0072) and by ZettaCore Incorporated. We thank K. Mobley (ZettaCore Incorporated) for insightful comments on DRAM operating characteristics.

Dates

Type	When
Created	21 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 28, 2003, 10:38 a.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 9, 2024, 9:29 p.m.)
Indexed	6 days, 16 hours ago (Aug. 26, 2025, 2:57 a.m.)
Issued	21 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 28, 2003)
Published	21 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 28, 2003)
Published Print	21 years, 9 months ago (Nov. 28, 2003)

Funders 0

None

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