King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
summer at kaust
BEACON at Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
May 2012 / Jumada Al-Akhir 1433 Volume 2, Issue No. 9
the
2012
www.kaust.edu.sa
turn to page 3
Photograph of KAUST taken from the satellite (iv)
bedouin role in stratospheric discovery
(iii) (Top) Fabrication of polymer ferroelectric memory devices on banknotes :(i) PDMS coated banknote (ii) spin-coating PEDOT:PSS bottom electrodes (iii) spin-coating P(VDF-TrFE) ferrolectric layer ~ 140 nm (iv) thermally evaporated pentacene thin film (~60 nm) and
A group of expectant KAUST community members gathered during the Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) to witness the launch of an experimental nano-satellite, not with rockets, but rather attached to a strato-
(ii)
(Bottom) Photograph of a 1-Saudi Riyal note covered with arrays of polymer ferroelectric memory devices.
spheric weather balloon. As the balloon rose – gently and silently - the helium within it expanded, increasing its diameter from 2 to 8m, and causing it to ascend to 31 km into the
(i)
stratosphere where it met the prevailing easterly winds. It traveled 160 km over the next few hours toward the desert, north of the hill city of Taif - landing and becoming tangled in the volcanic rocks of the lunar-like landscape nearby, where it languished for several weeks after the students lost radio and GPS contact with the device. A Bedouin farmer, seeking a disobedient camel, stumbled upon
KAUST RESEARCH: the buck stops here
it, wondering at first whether the polystyrene
Anyone visiting the Functional Nanomaterials
receive their power from radio signals. In this
and achieve a significant improvement in per-
box could be dangerous. Upon opening it, he
and Devices Laboratory several months ago
study, the all-polymer ferroelectric memory
formance of all-polymer ferroelectric memory
discovered the mobile phone that was part of
might have been surprised to see PhD student
devices can store data permanently, making
on a par with metal electrodes.
the flight instrumentation and, being a 21st
Mohammad Adnan Khan ironing Saudi Riyal
them a more attractive option. To fabricate
The third challenge was the integration of
century Bedouin, plugged it into a socket at
notes or cutting others into pieces. Indeed he
memory devices on banknotes it was neces-
the active device on the hydrophobic pla-
the first opportunity. The software team had
is proud to display his drawer - full of torn-
sary that all the active layers of the device
narization layer. “The highly conducting
programmed an Android application on the
up and ironed Riyals. In a paper published in
were flexible, transparent, cheap, capable of
water based polymer electrodes would never
craft, which automatically alerted them of the
the April 2012 issue of the prestigious journal
being deposited at low process temperatures,
stick on this hydrophobic layer,” explains
GPS location of the device.
Advanced Materials, the reasons for this unu-
and robust. The team’s decision to fabricate
Adnan. To solve this, the team modified the
sual activity become clearer.
solution-deposited all-polymer devices has led
surface of the planarization layer using a gen-
to the world’s first all-polymer ferroelectric
tle plasma process that changed the surface
memory on a banknote with properties that
properties without losing the smooth surface.
rival those of memories made on conventional
The fabrication steps of ferroelectric memory
silicon substrates with metal electrodes.
on a Saudi one-riyal banknote are illustrated
Saad Alrawaf, the lead programmer, was able to call the finder of the box and a desert rendezvous was arranged for late one evening. In
(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ adma.201200626/abstract)
the dead of night some 30 km from a small
Under the guidance of Professor Husam
village, Usayrah, 50 km from Taif, Alrawaf
Alshareef, Khan and postdoctoral researcher
and Mohammad Shaqura eventually met with
Dr. Unnat Bhansali worked together to fabri-
The team had to overcome several major
in the figures above. The fabricated mem-
Faisal Al-Otaibi and the handover was made.
cate the first all-polymer non-volatile memory
challenges to succeed, the first being the rough
ory devices exhibit excellent performance
Al-Otaibi returned the payload and explained
device on a banknote. The idea of integrat-
fibrous surface of the Saudi Riyal, which makes it
with low operating voltages, high mobili-
that he was less anxious after reading on the
ing memory on banknotes was conceived
almost impossible to fabricate quality electronic
ties, and a large memory window with good
box that housed the satellite that it was not
to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating
devices. The decision was taken to integrate a
retention characteristics.
dangerous – written clearly in Arabic and
active electronic security features such as
polymeric planarization (smoothing) layer
This work has not only demonstrated high
English. He had assumed that he was meeting
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags
(polydimethylsiloxane – PDMS) on the rough
performance non-volatile polymer memories
local meteorologists, but was delighted to retell
on banknotes. In theory, an RFID tag would
riyal surface, which was flexible, transparent,
on banknotes, but also highlights the fact that
his story and, indeed, with true Arab hospitality,
give governments and law enforcement agen-
had good adhesion and was inert to active
polymers can be used as cheap, flexible, and
invited his new friends for dinner. The team had
cies a means to literally follow money. The
layers on top.
transparent local as well as global interconnects
hoped to recover these to verify that they had
RFID allows money to carry its own history by
The second major challenge was to improve
indeed correctly deployed - that the box had
recording information of its whereabouts. The
the performance of these all-polymer memory
Apart from the value of this technology for
survived impact and that the parachute worked.
RFID chip is an important advance because it
devices on banknotes. Traditionally, polymer
anti-counterfeiting applications, other possible
The KAUST pair returned to KAUST to prepare
no longer depends on humans to spot “funny
electrodes have always decreased the perfor-
applications include electronic paper, flexible
the recovery expedition at the landing site.
in electronic circuitry instead of metal lines.
money”. Volatile memories, however, are not
mance of such devices. By chemically doping
displays, and sensors. At an anticipated pro-
With the recovered photos of the satel-
suitable for passive RFID tags as they do not
the polymer electrode material, the team was
duction cost of only tens of cents, the memory
lite landing, the KAUST team of Yan Azdoud,
have a constantly available power source and
able to dramatically increase its conductivity
could be used in cheap disposable sensors and
Nano | Continued on p2
INSIDE:
News 1-3
Polymer | Continued on p2
The KAUST School 4-5
Research 6–7
Community 8