Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The Canadian plastics and polymer manufacturing sector is in need of a rejuvenation, while Canada'sinformation and communication technology (ICT) manufacturing is booming. Our 'big' data society and theprogress of ICT generate a continuous demand for new manufacturing solutions that, at the required levels ofthinness, simplicity, and costs, are not currently available from silicon electronics, and 'plastic' electronicsbased on organic polymers have often been suggested as promising alternative. This has created a pressingneed for the development of advanced, environmentally-friendly manufacturing methods for the production ofelectronic-grade 'plastic' materials. Polyradicals, polymers in which each repeated unit supports an unpairedelectron, are at the forefront of research in 'flash' memories, data storage units capable to retain informationwithout any external power source, but are writable an unlimited number of times. This proposal capitalizes onthe recent record achievement of the Fanchini-Gilroy team that has demonstrated and patented ultrathin flashmemory devices from a newly designed polyradical, poly[1,5-diisopropyl-3-(cis-5-norbornene-exo-2,3-dicarboxiimide)-6-oxo-verdazyl] (P6OV), with the thinnest active layer (10 nm) ever obtained, muchthinner than their commercial silicon counterparts. To capitalize on this startling discovery, an industriallyscalable system with the potential to lead to integrated electronics from organic polyradicals must beimplemented. In partnership with Plasmionique, Canada's largest producer of vacuum polymer depositionsystems for electronics , the Fanchini-Gilroy team will develop the prototype of a new vacuum polyradicaldeposition (VPRD) reactor that will be commercialized by our industrial partner, enabling solvent-free andenvironmentally-friendly mass production of polyradicals, with strong benefits to Canada. A prototype of aflash memory integrating a large number of memory components onto a single chip will also be demonstratedwith the new VPRD fabrication system, which will feature device patterning technology developed at theWestern University Nanofabrication Facility.