Memristor

Vidyanandgouda S Patil Electronics & Communication Engineering KLESCET Belgaum, Karnataka Vidyanand_rdself@yahoo.co.in Vasanth Mundargi Electronics & Communication Engineering KLESCET Belgaum, Karnataka vasanthmundargi@gmail.com
HISTORY:
ABSTRACT: Yes, the time has arrived when the world will get addicted to fourth fundamental element of a circuit. The time when all circuits, memory devices soon will be replaced by this wonderful element of a circuit. Although its existance was proposed decades ago, but finally a physical model is developed. The ability to get the data last for any period of time, resume working of any electronic device even after a long period of pause or halt is now possible with memristor. Invented in 1971, this "memory resistor" represents a potential revolution in electronic-circuit theory akin to the invention of the transistorand perhaps its time has finally come. But as with that earlier device, it will take a killer application to get it off the ground. the memristor could turn out to be as important a development as the transistor itself. And as with the transistor, applications may take a while to accumulate. Using a crossbar architecture similar to that of the RRAM to harness precise resistance changes in an analogue circuit, massive memristor arrays with tunable resistance at each crossbar could enable brainlike learning. In the brain, a synapse is strengthened whenever current flows through it, in much the same way as flowing current through a memristor lowers resistance. A memristor's resistance changes as current flows through it. "The nice thing about using

Memristor theory was formulated and named by Leon Chua in a 1971 paper. Chua extrapolated the conceptual symmetry between the resistor, inductor, and capacitor, and inferred that the memristor is a similarly fundamental device. Other scientists had already used fixed nonlinear flux-charge relationships, but Chua's theory introduces generality. Mr. Chua described and named the memristor, arguing that it should be included along with the resistor, capacitor and inductor as the fourth fundamental circuit element. The memristor has properties that cannot be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements.

On April 30, 2008 a team at HP Labs announced the development of a switching memristor. Based on a thin film of titanium dioxide, it has a regime of operation with an approximately linear charge-

resistance relationship. These devices are being developed for application in nanoelectronic memories, computer logic, and neuromorphic computer architectures. THEORY

the memristor in a crossbar is that it is made out of relatively robust inorganic materials like titanium dioxide," "All memory storage elements today use silicon transistors as the memory element. The thing about the crossbar that it moves the memory element out of the silicon and puts it on top." Because "relatively conventional silicon circuits" are used for control and management logic below the array, "the crossbar memory array can be much more dense than the underlying transistor technology,"

Memristor symbol:

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The power consumption characteristic recalls that of a resistor, I2R.

As long as M(q(t)) varies little, such as under alternating current, the memristor will appear as a resistor. If M(q(t)) increases rapidly, however, current and power consumption will quickly stop. Magnetic flux in a passive device The memristor is formally defined as a two-terminal element in which the magnetic flux m between the terminals is a function of the amount of electric charge q that has passed through the device. Each memristor is characterized by its memristance function describing the charge-dependent rate of change of flux with charge. In circuit theory, magnetic flux m typically relates to Faraday's law of induction, which states that the voltage in terms of energy gained around a loop (electromotive force) equals the negative derivative of the flux through the loop:

Noting from Faraday's law of induction that magnetic flux is simply the time integral of voltage, and charge is the time integral of current, we may write the more convenient form

This notion may be extended by analogy to a single passive device. If the circuit is composed of passive devices, then the total flux is equal to the sum of the flux components due to each device. For example, a simple wire loop with low resistance will have high flux linkage to an applied field as little flux is "induced" in the opposite direction. Voltage for passive devices is evaluated in terms of energy lost by a unit of charge:

It can be inferred from this that memristance is simply charge-dependent resistance. If M(q(t)) is a constant, then we obtain Ohm's Law R(t) = V(t)/ I(t). If M(q(t)) is nontrivial, however, the equation is not equivalent because q(t) and M(q(t)) will vary with time. Solving for voltage as a function of time we obtain

Observing that m is simply equal to the integral of the potential drop between two points, we find that it may readily be calculated, for example by an operational amplifier configured as an integrator. Two unintuitive concepts are at play: Magnetic flux is generated by a resistance in opposition to an applied field or electromotive force. In the absence of resistance, flux due to constant EMF increases indefinitely. The opposing flux induced in a resistor must also increase indefinitely so their sum remains finite. Any appropriate response to applied voltage may be called "magnetic flux."

This equation reveals that memristance defines a linear relationship between current and voltage, as long as charge does not vary. Of course, nonzero current implies time varying charge. Alternating current, however, may reveal the linear dependence in circuit operation by inducing a measurable voltage without net charge movementas long as the maximum change in q does not cause much change in M. Furthermore, the memristor is static if no current is applied. If I(t) = 0, we find V(t) = 0 and M(t) is constant. This is the essence of the memory effect.

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The upshot is that a passive element may relate some variable to flux without storing a magnetic field. Indeed, a memristor always appears instantaneously as a resistor. As shown above, assuming non-negative resistance, at any instant it is dissipating power from an applied EMF and thus has no outlet to dissipate a stored field into the circuit. This contrasts with an inductor, for which a magnetic field stores all energy originating in the potential across its terminals, later releasing it as an electromotive force within the circuit.

Williams of Hewlett Packard. A solid-state device could not be constructed until the unusual behavior of nanoscale materials was better understood. The device neither uses magnetic flux as the theoretical memristor suggested, nor stores charge as a capacitor does, but instead achieves a resistance dependent on the history of current using a chemical mechanism. The HP device is composed of a thin (50 nm) titanium dioxide film between two 5 nm thick electrodes, one Ti, the other Pt. Initially, there are two layers to the titanium dioxide film, one of which has a slight depletion of oxygen atoms. The oxygen vacancies act as charge carriers, meaning that the depleted layer has a much lower resistance than the non-depleted layer. When an electric field is applied, the oxygen vacancies drift (see Fast ion conductor), changing the boundary between the highresistance and low-resistance layers. Thus the resistance of the film as a whole is dependent on how much charge has been passed through it in a particular direction, which is reversible by changing the direction of current. Since the HP device displays fast ion conduction at nanoscale, it is considered a nanoionic device. Memristance is displayed only when both the doped layer and depleted layer contribute to resistance. When enough charge has passed through the memristor that the ions can no longer move, the device enters hysteresis. It ceases to integrate q=Idt but rather keeps q at an upper bound and M fixed, thus acting as a resistor until current is reversed. Memory applications of thin-film oxides had been an area of active investigation for some time. IBM published an article in 2000 regarding structures similar to that described by Williams. Samsung has a pending U.S. patent application for several oxide-layer based switches similar to that described by Williams. Williams also has a pending U.S. patent application related to the memristor construction. Although the HP memristor is a major discovery for electrical engineering theory, it has yet to be demonstrated in operation at practical speeds and densities. Graphs in Williams' original report show switching operation at only ~1 Hz. Although the small dimensions of the device seem to imply fast operation, the charge carriers move very slowly, with an ion mobility of 1010 cm2/(Vs). In comparison, the highest known drift ionic mobilities occur in advanced superionic conductors, such as rubidium silver

Operation as a switch For some memristors, applied current or voltage will cause a great change in resistance. Such devices may be characterized as switches by investigating the time and energy that must be spent in order to achieve a desired change in resistance. Here we will assume that the applied voltage remains constant and solve for the energy dissipation during a single switching event. For a memristor to switch from Ron to Roff in time Ton to Toff, the charge must change by Q = QonQoff.

To arrive at the final expression, substitute V=I(q)M(q), and then dq/V = Q/V for constant V. This power characteristic differs fundamentally from that of a metal oxide semiconductor transistor, which is a capacitor-based device. Unlike the transistor, the final state of the memristor in terms of charge does not depend on bias voltage. The type of memristor described by Williams ceases to be ideal after switching over its entire resistance range and enters hysteresis, also called the "hard-switching regime." Another kind of switch would have a cyclic M(q) so that each off-on event would be followed by an on-off event under constant bias. Such a device would act as a memristor under all conditions, but would be less practical. IMPLEMENTATION Titanium dioxide memristor Interest in the memristor revived in 2008 when an experimental solid state version was reported by R. Stanley

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iodide with about 2104 cm2/(Vs) conducting silver ions at room temperature. Electrons and holes in silicon have a mobility ~1000 cm2/(Vs), a figure which is essential to the performance of transistors. However, a relatively low bias of 1 volt was used, and the plots appear to be generated by a mathematical model rather than a laboratory experiment. Polymeric memristor In July 2008, Victor Erokhin and Marco P. Fontana, in Electrochemically controlled polymeric device: a memristor (and more) found two years ago, claim to have developed a polymeric memristor before the titanium dioxide memristor more recently announced. Spin memristive systems A fundamentally different mechanism for memristive behavior has been proposed by Yuriy V. Pershin and Massimiliano Di Ventra in their paper "Spin memristive systems". The authors show that certain types of semiconductor spintronic structures belong to a broad class of memristive systems as defined by Chua and Kang. The mechanism of memristive behavior in such structures is based entirely on the electron spin degree of freedom which allows for a more convenient control than the ionic transport in nanostructures. When an external control parameter (such as voltage) is changed, the adjustment of electron spin polarization is delayed because of the diffusion and relaxation processes causing a hysteresis-type behavior. This result was anticipated in the study of spin extraction at semiconductor/ferromagnet interfaces, but was not described in terms of memristive behavior. On a short time scale, these structures behave almost as an ideal memristor. This result broadens the possible range of applications of semiconductor spintronics and makes a step forward in future practical applications of the concept of memristive systems. Manganite memristive systems Although not described using the word "memristor", a study was done of bilayer oxide films based on manganite for non-volatile memory by researchers at the University of Houston in 2001. Some of the graphs indicate a tunable resistance based on the number of applied voltage pulses similar to the effects found in the titanium dioxide memristor materials described in the Nature paper "The missing memristor found".

Resonant tunneling diode memristor In 1994, F. A. Buot and A. K. Rajagopal of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory demonstrated that a bow-tie currentvoltage (I-V) characteristics occurs in AlAs/GaAs/AlAs quantum-well diodes containing special doping design of the spacer layers in the source and drain regions, in agreement with the published experimental results. This bow-tie current-voltage (I-V) characteristic is sine qua non of a memristor although the term memristor is not explicitly mentioned in their papers. No magnetic interaction is involved in the analysis of the bow-tie I-V characteristics. POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS Williams' solid-state memristors can be combined into devices called crossbar latches, which could replace transistors in future computers, taking up a much smaller area. They can also be fashioned into non-volatile solidstate memory, which would allow greater data density than hard drives with access times potentially similar to DRAM, replacing both components. HP prototyped a crossbar latch memory using the devices that can fit 100 gigabits in a square centimeter. HP has reported that its version of the memristor is about one-tenth the speed of DRAM. The devices' resistance would be read with alternating current so that they do not affect the stored value. Some patents related to memristors appear to include applications in programmable logic, signal processing, neural networks, and control systems. Recently, a simple electronic circuit consisting of an LC contour and a memristor was used to model experiments on adaptive behavior of unicellular organisms. It was shown that the electronic circuit subjected to a train of periodic pulses learns and anticipates the next pulse to come, similarly to the behavior of slime molds Physarum polycephalum subjected to periodic changes of environment. Such a learning circuit may find applications, e.g., in pattern recognition. Memcapacitors and Meminductors Leon Chua has written an article extending the notion of memristive systems to capacitive and inductive elements in the form of memcapacitors and meminductors whose properties depend on the state and history of the system.

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Memristors can be the edge in speed for which we are already prepared. Humans are capable of handling quite a fast and wonderful elements. With this context memristors are expected to bring revolution in memory storage fields, electronic equipments and the entire related area. REFERENCES [1] Wikipedia- Memristor. [2] HP invents Memristor element that can enable energy independent memory, Human like thinking Computers- Xbit labs.mht [3] Are Memristors ready to take off.mht by R Colin Johnson- EE Times

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