Electronically controlled nonvolatile memory device using PAMAM dendrimer

The nonvolatile memory behavior, using novel material, PAMAM dendrimer was investigated. Although PAMAM dendrimers are intrinsically insulating materials, the metal coordinating functionality in the dendrimers can provide the PAMAM device the electronically controllable conductivity. In order to realize the bistable memory behavior in the PAMAM device, an external circuit consisting of two diodes and one resistor plays an important role in maintaining the resistance of the higher conductive state within a desired narrow range. Consequently, the PAMAM device shows good memory performance, such as relatively long retention time of at least 30 h, low operation voltage below 5 V and the on-off ratio which can be controlled from 10 to 103.