Dense, Non-Volatile Organic Memory: Organic materials may be suitable for dense, non-volatile memories because their properties can be tailored into different states that can be read as on/off. Process complexity also could be reduced because these materials are suitable for vacuum deposition and simple spin-coating. However, there is an issue of temperature instability. At IEDM 2003, Infineon researchers will describe such a memory built from an unspecified organic layer sandwiched between two sets of electrodes in a simple cross-point array. Current applied to the electrodes causes the organic layer to change states at that point. Because transistors and capacitors aren't needed, the memory can be made as dense as is theoretically possible -- 4F².

Figure (1) shows a simple cross-point array with the memory material sandwiched between two sets of electrodes. Figure (2) shows the material deposited between the electrodes in vias to avoid cross-talk, though this results in a somewhat larger cell size. Either way, stacking the memory layers can increase the memory density, as shown in Fig.(3).

(Paper #10.2, "Organic Materials for High-Density Non-Volatile Memory Applications," R. Sezi et al, Infineon Technologies)