Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) researchers have developed fully functional flexible non-volatile resistive random access memory (RRAM), a new technology that allows a memory cell to be randomly accessed, written, and erased on a plastic substrate.

The demand for flexible electronic systems such as wearable computers, E-paper, and flexible displays has recently increased due to their advantages over present rigid electronic systems.

Although several flexible memory materials have been reported, these devices could not overcome cell-to-cell interference due to their structural and material limitations.

To solve this problem, switching elements such as transistors must be integrated with the memory elements. Unfortunately, most transistors built on plastic substrates (e.g., organic/oxide transistors) are not capable of driving conventional memory.

The KAIST researchers solved the cell-to-cell interference issue by integrating a memristor with a high-performance single-crystal silicon transistor on flexible substrates.

Ref.: Seungjun Kim et al., Flexible Memristive Memory Array on Plastic Substrates, Nano Letters, Oct. 2011