Polymer field-effect transistor memory based on a ferroelectric nylon gate insulator

Abstract

Nylons are one of the most successful commercialized polymers and can also be made to have ferroelectric properties. However, use of nylons in microelectronic devices like ferroelectric field-effect transistors has proven to be challenging due to the difficulty in achieving ferroelectric thin films by solution processing. In this work, we present ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET) memory with a ferroelectric nylon-11 gate. Water quenching allows for the fabrication of ultra-smooth ferroelectric nylon-11 thin films. A bottom-gate top-contact (BGTC) FeFET is successfully demonstrated with a p-type semiconducting polymer, poly(triaryl amine) (PTAA), as a channel. The nylon-11 FeFET shows reliable memory functionality. The demonstration of nylon-11 based FeFETs makes nylons a promising material for applications in organic electronics, such as flexible devices, electronic textiles and biomedical devices.