Herein, a functional hyperbranched polyimide, denoted as ATPP-HBPI, was synthesized by termination of polyamic acid with 5-(4-aminopheny1)-10, 15, 20-triphenylporphyrin (ATPP) and chemical imidization, Subsequently, ATPP-HBPI was coordinated with Zn ion to give Zn-ATPP-HBPI, In the HBPIs, the porphyrin terminals acted as the electron donor (D) and the 6FDA moieties acted as the electron acceptor (A) to promote the electron transition. Both ATPP-HBPI and Zn-ATPP-HBPI exhibited good organo-solubility and high thermal stability. They were used as the electroactive layer to fabricate the memory device with a configuration of indium tin oxide (ITO)IHBPI/AI to evaluate their bistability. The devices exhibited different memory behaviors, WORM for ATPP-HBPI and SRAM for Zn-ATPP-HBPI, respectively, Optical and electrochemical experiments and molecular simulation were carried out to illustrate this phenomenon of performance transformation. The results show that the metallization of terminal of the HBPIs provides a strategy for tailoring the memory characteristics of the devices. (C) 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.