Flexible and Fully Bio-degradable Resistance Random Access Memory Based on Gelatin Dielectric.

The increased public concerns on healthcare, environment and sustainable development inspired the development of biodegradable and biocompatible electronics that could be used as the degradable electronics in implants. In this work, a fully biodegradable and flexible resistance random access memory (RRAM) was developed with low-cost biomaterial gelatin as the dielectric layer and biodegradable polymer poly(lactide-coglycolide) acid (PLGA) as the substrate. PLGA can be synthesized by a simple solution process and the PLGA substrate can be peeled off the handling substrate for operation once the devices were fabricated. The fabricated memory device exhibited reliable non-volatile resistive switching characteristics with a long retention time over 104 sec and a near-constant on/off resistance ratio of 102 even after 200 cyclic bending, showing the promising potential for application in flexible electronics. Degradation of the devices in deionized water and in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution showed that the whole devices can be degraded in water completely. The dissolution of metals and gelatin layer was in few days, while that for PLGA is about 6 months which can be modified by changing the synthesis conditions of the film, thus allowing the development of biodegradable electronics with designed dissolution time.