Low-temperature process developed in the United States is expected to use cheap polymers to produce ferroelectric components

The Georgia Institute of Technology recently used the atomic-force microscope (AFM) to develop a new cryogenic process that is expected to produce ferroelectric memories from plastic substrates in a short period of time. Energy harvesting arrays, sensors, actuators and other components.

The research team led by Georgia Institute of Technology professor Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb developed a cryogenic process that can deposit ferroelectric materials on plastic substrates using a thermochemical nano-lithography technique. The team also includes postdoctoral fellow Suenne Kim, professor Elisa Riedo, and graduate student assistant Yaser Bastani, who recently confirmed that nanoscale ferroelectric structures can be used to produce ferroelectric components on inexpensive polymers.

The team used the heated tips of the AFM to fabricate ferroelectric structures suitable for semiconductor devices or MEMS-like sensors and actuators, including lines with a width of only 30 nanometers and spheres with a diameter of only 10 nanometers. Taking a ferroelectric memory as an example, the team estimates that a newly developed process can be used to achieve a capacity density of 200 GB per square inch.

The research partners also included the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and the University of Nebraska, and won the National Science Foundation and American Energy. (US Department of Energy) sponsorship.