MEMRISTOR

THE BASIC MISSING CIRCUIT ELEMENT

ARUN PAL REETIKA CHATURVEDI
ECE ---3 Year 2 sem ECE--- 2 Year 2 sem
Narsimha Reddy Engg. College Narsimha Reddy Engg. College

ABSTRACT:

The objective of this paper is to make the students aware that there
exits a fourth passive element other than resistor, inductor, and
capacitor. And the name of the fourth passive element is
MEMRISTOR. A memristor ("memory resistor") is any of various
kinds of passive two-terminal circuit elements that maintain a
functional relationship between the time integrals of current and
voltage. A memristor possesses both data storage and signal
processing capabilities. It replaces today’s commonly used dynamic
random access memory (DRAM). A memristor circuit requires
lower voltage, less power and less time to turn on than competitive
memory like DRAM and flash. It does not require power to
maintain its memory. It takes a lot of transistors and capacitors to
do the job of a single memristor. No combination of R, L, C circuit
could duplicate the memristance. So the memristor qualifies as a
fundamental circuit element.
INTRODUCTION
Currently known fundamental passive elements –
Resistors,
Capacitors &
Inductors.
Does a 4th passive element exist

Leon O. Chua formulated Memristor theory in his paper “Memristor-

The Missing Circuit Element” in 1971. Memristors are passive two
terminal circuit elements. Behaves like a nonlinear resistor with
memory. They maintains a functional relationship between time
integrals of current and voltage. It takes a lot of transistors and
capacitors to do the job of a single memoristor.

SYMBOL OF MEMRISTER
HISTORY OF MEMRISTOR:

Memristor, the missing basic circuit element, was first proposed in 1971
in a seminal paper published by Professor Leon O. Chua. The concept
gained a broader scope in a paper co-published by Leon Chua and Sung
Mo Kang in 1976. In 2008, Stan Williams at HP Labs unveiled a two-
terminal titanium dioxide nanoscale device that exhibited memristor and
memristive characteristics, thus igniting renewed interest in memristors.
The first symposium on Memristor and Memristive Systems, held at UC
Berkeley on November 21-22, 2008, inspired novel circuit applications
and new efforts to develop memristors using various types of materials
and nanoparticles, and also novel circuit applications and CAD models

SO WHAT IS MEMRISTANCE?

Memristance is a property of an electronic component. When charge

flows in one direction, its resistance increases, and if direction is
reversed, resistance decreases. When v=0, charge flow stops &
component will ‘remember’ the last resistance it had. When the flow of
charge regains, the resistance of the circuit will be the value when it was
last active
MEMRISTOR THEORY

Four fundamental circuit variables-

Current I, voltage v, charge q, and flux linkage φ.

Six possible combinations of these four variables.

Five already defined as:

Resistor (dv=Rdi),

Capacitor (dq=Cdv),

Inductor(dφ=Ldi), q(t)=∫i(t)dt, φ(t)=∫v(t)dt.

The 6th relation defines memristance as dφ=Mdq

Two terminal devices in which magnetic flux Φm between its terminals

is a function of amount of electric charge q passed through the device.

M (q) = dΦm/dq

M (q) = [dΦm/dt] / [dq/dt] = V/I

V (t) = M (q (t)) I(t)

RELATION BETWEEN FUNDAMENTAL CIRCUIT
ELEMENTS AND VARIABLES
MICROSCOPIC IMAGE OF MEMRISTOR ROW

An atomic force microscope image of a simple circuit with 17

memristors lined up in a row. Each memristor has a bottom wire that
contacts one side of the device and a top wire that contacts the opposite
side. The devices act as 'memory resistors', with the resistance of each
device depending on the amount of charge that has moved through each
one. The wires in this image are 50 nm wide, or about 150 atoms in total
width.
OPERATION AS A SWITCH
For some memristors, applied current or voltage will cause a great
change in resistance. The semiconductor film has a region of high conc.
of dopants having low resistance R ON & remaining portion having zero
dopant conc. and much higher resistance R OFF. By application of
external bias, we can move the boundary to adjust the device resistance
from RON to ROFF.

v-i CHARACTERISTICS
The most common v-i trace is a ‘figure 8’ or a ‘pinched loop’. For this
current i=0, when voltage v=0. On the application of electric field,
oxygen vacancies drift, changing boundary between high & low
resistance layers. Memristance is only displayed when the doped layer &
depleted layer both contribute to resistance. The device enters hysteresis
when enough charge has passed through memristor & ions can no longer
move.
MEMRISTANCE FORMULA

For linear ionic drift in a uniform field with average ion mobility µv,

M(q) = Memristance of a device as a function of charge

Roff = High resistance state
Ron = Low resistance state
µv = Mobility of charge
q(t) = Charge flowing through the device at time t
D =Thickness of semicounductor film sandwiched
Between two metal contacts.

The 2nd term in the parentheses which contribute more to memristance

becomes larger when D is in the nanometer range. Thus memristance is
important characteristics of a device when critical dimension shrink to
nanometer scale.
APPLICATIONS AND ADVANTAGES

1. Can now think about fabricating a non-volatile random access

memory (RAM) – or memory chips that don't forget the data when a
computer is shut off. Memristors carries a memory of its past.

2. Replace today’s commonly used dynamic random access memory

(DRAM).

3. Denser cells allow memristor circuits to store more data than flash
memory.

4. The Hewlett-Packard team has successfully created working circuits

based on memristors that are as small as 15 nanometers. Ultimately, it
will be possible to make memristors as small as about four nanometers.

5. A memristor circuit requires lower voltage, less power and less time
to turn on than competitive memory
like DRAM and flash.

6. It does not require power to maintain its memory.

7. The ability to store and retrieve a vast array of intermediate values

also pave the way to a completely different class of computing
capabilities like an analog computer in which you don't use 1s and 0s
only
 PRACTICAL LIMITATIONS:

 The most significant limitation is that the memristors functions at

about one-tenth the speed of today’s DRAM memory cells.

 Its switching operation at only 1Hz

 Although small dimension of device seems to imply fast

operation, the charge move very slowly

CONCLUSION:

 By redesigning certain types of circuits to include Memristors, it is

possible to obtain the same function with fewer components,
making the circuit itself less expensive and significantly decreasing
its power consumption.

 It takes a lot of transistors & capacitors to do the job of a single

memristor

 No combination of RLC circuit could duplicate the memristance

 So memristor qualifies as a fundamental circuit element.