Fatimah Ghassan Alajaji
Alfaisaliah Islamic School for Girls, Alkhobar, Eastern, SAUDI ARABIA
Current silicon-based technology has many down-sides, including low physical flexibility, high cost, problems with scaling, and high power consumption. The use of polymeric substrates as a substitute for silicon presents a considerable opportunity for Saudi Arabia, with its abundant petrochemical infrastructure. In this research, an all-polymer ferroelectric capacitor is fabricated based on the functional polymer poly(vinylidene fluoride trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] on a substrate of polyethylene napthalate [PEN], with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonic acid) [PEDOT:PSS] electrodes. P(VDF-TrFE)`s easy deposition on a wide range of substrates and processability at low temperatures makes it ideal to act as the ferroelectric layer in the capacitor. It was developed primarily by utilizing a spin-coating technique for each layer, followed by heating/annealing periods. The performance of these all-polymer devices was studied and compared to baseline metal devices on a silicon substrate. Specifically, the hysteresis and switching current responses were studied. The apparatus was built 5 times and tested 30 times each. These novel devices showed a tremendously improved coercive field [Ec] value of 6V compared to earlier research by Xu et. Al., with all-polymer capacitors displaying an Ec of 13V. The all-polymer capacitors also exhibited comparable performance to ones with metal electrodes. As they provide an alternative for silicon-based capacitors, these devices have countless uses in the field of Information Technology (IT), which has become an integral part in our daily lives. Future IT applications could include logic/memory, RFID tagging, and sensors. Awards won at the 2012 ISEF Third Award of $1,000 - ENG: Materials and Bioengineering - Presented by Intel