Parylene C based memristors for the realization of ultra-thin and flexible smart systems

Advanced applications such as the Internet of Things, smart driving and Industry 4.0 rely on miniaturized high-performance devices for different tasks such as sensing, actuating or data processing. For improving their performance, new and advanced materials are required to be integrated as a functional material and construction material. A new packaging platform for smart systems was successfully developed based on Parylene using the polymer as an ultra-thin substrate, dielectric between multiple redistribution layers as well as encapsulation layer for realizing an ultra-thin printed circuit board for highly flexible electronics and sensors. Within this work, Parylene is investigated for its usage as a memristive material in order to create memristors that can be directly integrated in that ultra-thin printed circuit board and add an additional functionality to the material. Doing so, metal-Parylene-metal layer stacks were fabricated as memristive test architectures and their memristive properties were characterized electrically. For analyzing the impact of the different parameters, the Parylene thickness was varied and various annealing conditions were applied for adjusting and optimizing the crystallinity and molecular density. Furthermore, the electrode size was varied and different experiments for the formation of the filaments were carried out for a better understanding. Typical hysteresis loops were successfully achieved for the Parylene memristors with low voltages and currents as well as a good stability and reproducibility, making the Parylene memristor technology attractive for low-power applications.