Proton induced multilevel storage capability in self-assembled indium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors

Multilevel memory capability of self-assembled indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) electric-double-layer (EDL) thin-film transistors gated by nanogranular SiO2 proton conducting electrolytes is investigated. More than four distinct memory states are obtained by programming gate voltage. The observed multilevel storage behavior is mainly due to the controlled interfacial electrochemical doping of IZO channel by penetrated protons under programmed gate voltages. In addition, such IZO-based EDL transistor multilevel memory exhibits good characteristics of programming/erasing endurance and data retention. Such oxide-based EDL transistors with proton-induced multilevel memory behavior are interesting for low-cost memory and neuromorphic system applications after further properties and size optimization. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.