Chapter - 7

Summary, Conclusion
and Future Scope

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7.1. Summery and Conclusion

The memristor is popular as a fourth fundamental circuit element and strong

candidate for the next generation memory and logic applications. After its first
physical realization by HP group, different research groups around the globe have
found out many interesting applications in various domains such as 3D memories,
In-Memory computing, neuromorphic applications, nonlinear dynamics, biomedical
applications, soft computing, programmable analog circuits etc. In particular, the
resistive switching property of memristor device can be used for RRAM. In recent
year, many research groups have found out the multilevel resistive switching
property of memristor device, this unique property is useful to design highly dense
future memories. This property can also be utilized for the different logic application
such as, IMPLY logic, Akers Logic, Boolean logic etc.
Some recent studies show that scaling limit and limited number of read-write
cycles of flash memory forces to find new alternatives of denser with faster
memories. In view of this many nonvolatile memory technologies are developed e.g.
Phase Change RAM (PCRAM), Magnetoresistive RAM, (MRAM), Ferroelectric RAM
(FeRAM), and Resistive RAM (RRAM) etc. The RRAM or memristor becomes front
runner in all of them due to its lower footprint, lower power dissipation, higher data
retention capabilities and faster speed of operation. The physical mechanism of
memristor device is still unknown and many research groups are striving hard to
find out universally acceptable solution. Apart from this, process parameter
variations studies of memristor device for the memory application are not studied at
its large. In view of this, the present thesis studied the properties of memristor in
general and memristor for memory application in particular.
In the present thesis we have successfully simulated the properties of
memristor device and also contributed two new window functions for the scientific
community. The ANN modelling of memristor device and development of open
source simulator tool are some key attributes of the present thesis. We also analyzed
the memristor based circuits considering its intrinsic memory property. The process
variation studies for memory application and low cost memristor device
development are the soul of this thesis. Considering the above studies, the present
research work divided into seven chapters which are as follows:

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 Chapter I begins with the general introduction of memristor device and
discussion of some of its basic properties. In this chapter we briefly discussed the
resistive switching behaviour of memristor and some of its applications in the field
of digital logic, chaotic circuits, soft computing and novel memristor based analog as
well as digital circuits. After portraying the memristor and its applications, later part
of the chapter devoted to research problem. The significance of research work,
objective of the thesis and chapter schemes are also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter II deals with the literature survey for the thesis problem. In this
chapter, more attention given towards memristor based RRAM. In particular, this
chapter had focus on the literature survey related to modelling of memristor device,
development of memristor device using various physical and chemical routes, and
reliability analysis of the memristor device. Considering the gaps in the literature,
further research direction is designed which reflects in the subsequent chapters.
Chapter III reported the mathematical modelling and simulation of
memristor device. The simulation of memristor was carried out by using linear drift
model of memistor. The simulation results show the close resemblance with the
results reported in the literature by other research groups. The mathematical
framework of linear drift model did not consider the nonlinear effects in the device
and hence to overcome this problem, we have proposed two new window functions
for real-time simulation of memristor device such as, piecewise linear window
function and nonlinear window function. The proposed window functions have
better parameter adjustment flexibility than other nonlinear window functions,
which results in the accurate modeling of memristor device.
In this chapter, we also reported the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model
of memristor device. The results show that, ANN model of memristor required lower
number of hidden neurons, lower percentage of validation and testing data. This
implies that, hardware implementation of above model required lower silicon estate.
The hardware realization of proposed architecture can be used in many application
areas such as pattern recognition, neuromorphic applications, hardware emulators,
machine learning and many more. The results suggested that, ANN will be the best
tool for modelling of nonlinear devices such as memristor and other emerging
nanoelectronics devices.

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 The memristor is a true nanoscale phenomenon and it is impossible for many
researcher and students to have the access of true device. To overcome this
problem, we have developed memristor simulation platform using JAVA
programming language. The easy to handling GUI structure and real time simulation
of memristor characteristics are some of the key advantages of this package. The
reported memristor simulator can be used as characteristic validation in thin film
memristor research and also in academic institute for teaching a memristor device
to undergraduate physics and electronic students.
Chapter IV discusses some novel analog applications of memristor. At the
outset, first section discusses the stability of memristor based circuits with the help
of state space analysis. In this section, series and parallel RLCM circuits have been
analyzed by using state space analysis method. The stability of two circuits is carried
out using eigenvalues formulation method, pole-zero plot and transient response of
system. It was found that system follows the negative real part of eigenvalues. The
result clearly shows that addition of memristor in the conventional circuits will not
alter the stability of system. It was also found that systems poles located at left hand
side of the ‘S’ plane, which indicates stable performance of system. It is clearly
evident that eigenvalues has negative real part hence two systems are internally
stable. Furthermore, we also obtained the frequency domain response of series and
parallel RLCM circuit. For this investigation various frequency domain plots such as,
Bode plot, Nyquist plot, Nichols plot and Singular value plot are utilized for the
analysis. The result of frequency domain analysis suggested that both the circuits
possess Bounded Input Bounded Output (BIBO) stability.
Furthermore, some novel analog circuits based on memristor device are
verified using simulation technique. For such simulations, LTspice-IV platform is
employed and subcircuit of memristor is defined in terms of nonlinear dopent drift.
The results of memristor based phase shift oscillator are in good agreement with the
conventional phase shift oscillator. Similarly, memristor based integrator and
differentiator circuits are simulated using LTspice-IV platform. The output signal and
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) results of memristor based integrator and
differentiator circuits are compatible with conventional resistor based integrator
and differentiator circuits. Due to programming capabilities of memristor device,
one can use these circuits for practical programmable analog circuits.

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 Chapter V reports the simulation study of nanoscopic conduction mechanism
and effects of process parameter variations such as, write voltage or bias, frequency,
and device dimensions on memristor device. The simulation of conduction
mechanism reveals that, the LRS state follows the Ohmic conduction mechanism
where as HRS follows the Space Charge Limited Current (SCLC) theory. The
frequency dependency is an inherent property of memristor and same has been
confirmed by the way simulations. Moreover, as frequency of applied signal
increases, the pinched hysteresis loop (PHL) tends to exhibit linear behaviour. The
frequency dependent property arises due to fact that at low frequency, memristor
state variable i.e. width of doped region ‘w’ settles at its nearest and instant voltage
owing to availability of adequate time. For high frequency signal, memristor makes
linear resistor like characteristics due to non availability of enough settling time. The
above said physical phenomenon has been confirmed by simulating the state
variable with respect to applied signal in time domain. The Monte-Carlo simulation
results follow the Gaussian distribution and show dependency of frequency of
applied signal on the range of state variables.
The effect of write voltage or bias revels that, LRS is a function of bias or
write voltage and HRS is independent of write voltage. The memory window or ratio
of ROFF to RON increases as the write voltage increases. This simply means that higher
memory window is obtained at higher voltage region. Furthermore, the memory
window is a function of frequency and higher memory window is obtained at lower
frequencies. The lifetime (τ) reliability analysis of memristor based RRAM is carried
out using LRS variations. It is observed that memristor possess higher lifetime (τ) in
the higher voltage with lower frequencies region, which results as lower data losses
in the memory architecture.
The effect of device dimensions revels that, LRS and HRS being the size
dependent properties. The result exemplifies that both LRS and HRS increase with
device size and frequency in incremental order, however resulting in decrease in the
memory window. The decrease in memory window leads to pronounced read/write
errors. Furthermore, peak current is higher at lower device size with lower
frequencies. This confirms that the memristor possess higher lifetime (τ) in lower
device size region with lower data losses in the memory architecture. The results
confirm that the lower device size with lower frequency region is the best possible

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region of operation so as to get higher memory window as well as higher lifetime (τ)
for memristor based RRAM. The results of Monte-Carlo simulation suggests the LRS
to follow Weibull distribution whereas HRS to go along with Gaussian distribution
for less read and write errors.
Chapter VI reports the synthesis, characterization and development of
nanostructured memristor device using various chemical techniques for RRAM
application. In this investigation various TMO’s are used as an active layer for the
memristor device development. The TiO2 based memristor is developed using
hydrothermal method, WO3 memristor was developed using spray pyrolysis
technique and ZnO memristor developed using aqueous chemical route.
XRD analysis of TiO2 active layer reveals the presence of densely packed
nanostructured anatase with tetragonal crystal structure. The developed Ag/TiO2/Al
memory device exhibits bipolar resistive switching behavior within the low
operation voltage (±0.68 V) with high degree of symmetry. In the case of WO3
memristor, morphological studies showed that prepared film consists of
interconnected porous microstructure composed with quasi nanoflakes. The
developed Ag/WO3/ITO memristor device exhibits bipolar resistive switching
behavior within ± 1 V which is typical memristor property. The ZnO thin film
memristor shows the quasi-symmetric resistive switching. The fabricated
memristor device shows bipolar resistive switching behaviour within low operating
voltage (± 0.88 V). The performance of each developed memristor device described
in Table 7.1.

Table 7.1: Performance of Developed Memristor Device Using Various TMO’s and
Chemical Routes.

Size of Resistive
Active Top Bottom Chemical Nature of
Active Switching
Layer Electrode Electrode Route PHL
Layer Voltage

Hydrothermal 265
TiO2 Ag Al ± 0.70 V Symmetric
Route nm

Spray Pyrolysis 550

WO3 Ag ITO ± 1.00 V Symmetric
Technique nm

Aqueous 1110
ZnO Ag FTO ± 0.88 V Asymmetric
Chemical Route nm

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 The results suggested that, TiO2 and WO3 memristor have symmetric pinched
hysteresis loop (PHL) hence both can be used for the digital memory application
such as RRAM due to its non-volatile memory effect. The nature of ZnO memristor
device exhibits the asymmetric pinched hysteresis loop (PHL) hence it can be used
for the analog memory applications such as, neuromorphic computing, artificial
neural network, pattern recognition etc.
Chapter VII reports the summary and conclusion of the present thesis. In a
nutshell, the present thesis covers the various aspects of memristor device such as
modelling, simulation, circuit analysis, reliability analysis and device development.

7.2. Future Scope

We are currently working on important areas which are not yet completed
and can be regarded as the future work in this field. Some of them are as follows:

1) Investigation of thermal effects on memristor based RRAM.

2) Study of ballistic transport and quantum mechanical effects on the nanoscale
memristor device.
3) Design a new kind of In-Memory computing platform using memristor
device, which can be used for the next generation Memory with logic (ML)
architecture.
4) Design and development of mixed mode programmable analog circuits using
memristor.
5) Investigation of stochastic and time series analysis of memristor based
RRAM.
6) Development of high performance memristor using physical synthesis
technique.
7) Development of efficient read and write circuits for memristor based RRAM.
8) Modelling and Development of memristor based 1T1R memory architecture.
9) Design a neuromorphic hardware platform using memristor.
10) Study the nonlinear dynamics of the memristor for the cryptographic
applications.

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