MEMRISTOR

INDEX

CHAPTER NAME PAGE NO.

CHAPTER 1 3
 INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2` 4
 FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS
1. RESISTOR
2. CAPACITOR
3. INDUCTOR

CHAPTER 3 12
 THE MISSING ELEMENT: MEMRISTOR
1. THE 4TH NEW FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT
2. NEED OF MEMRISTOR
CHAPTER 4 15

 MEMRISTOR THEORY AND PROPERTIES

1. HYSTERESIS MODEL
2. THE UNIQUE FEATURE: SELF PROGRAMMING
CHAPTER 5 20
 DELAY IN DISCOVERY OF MEMRISTOR
CHAPTER 6 22
 WORKING OF MEMRISTOR
CHAPTER 7 24
 ANALOGOUS SYSTEM

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER 8 25

 POTENTIAL APPLICATION
1. NANO-SCALE NATURE
2. REPLACEMENT OF FLASH MEMORY
3. REPLACEMENT OF D-RAM
4. BRAIN LIKE SYSTEMS

CHAPTER 9 27

 COST

CHAPTER 10 28

 NEW HORIZONS
1. MEMCAPACITOR
2. MEMINDUCTOR

CHAPTER 11 30

 CONCLUSION

REFERENCES 31

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 1
INTRODUCTION

Generally when most people think about electronics, they may initially think of
products such -as cell phones, radios, laptop computers, etc. others, having some engineering
background, may think of resistors, capacitors, etc. which are the basic components necessary
for electronics to function. Such basic components are fairly limited in number and each having
their own characteristic function.

Memristor theory was formulated and named by Leon Chua in a 1971 paper. Chua
strongly believed that a fourth device existed to provide conceptual symmetry with the resistor,
inductor, and capacitor. This symmetry follows from the description of basic passive circuit
elements as defined by a relation between two of the four fundamental circuit variables. A
device linking charge and flux (themselves defined as time integrals of current and voltage),
which would be the Memristor, was still hypothetical at the time. However, it would not be
until thirty-seven years later, on April 30, 2008, that a team at HP Labs led by the scientist R.
Stanley Williams would announce the discovery of a switching Memristor. Based on a thin
film of titanium dioxide, it has been presented as an approximately ideal device.
The reason that the Memristor is radically different from the other fundamental circuit
elements is that, unlike them, it carries a memory of its past. When you turn off the voltage to
the circuit, the Memristor still remembers how much was applied before and for how long.
That's an effect that can't be duplicated by any circuit combination of resistors, capacitors, and
inductors, which is why the Memristor qualifies as a fundamental circuit element.

The arrangement of these few fundamental circuit components form the basis of almost
all of the electronic devices we use in our everyday life. Thus the discovery of a brand new
fundamental circuit element is something not to be taken lightly and has the potential to open
the door to a brand new type of electronics. HP already has plans to implement Memristors in
a new type of non-volatile memory which could eventually replace flash and other memory
systems.

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 2
FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS

1. RESISTOR

A resistor is a two- terminal electronic component that produces a voltage across its
terminals that is proportional to the electric current through it in accordance with
Ohm's law which states

―Voltage (V) across a resistor is proportional to the current (I) through it where the
constant of proportionality is the resistance (R)‖.

V = IR

Electronic symbol

(Europe) (US)

Resistors are elements of electrical networks and electronic circuits and are ubiquitous
in most electronic equipment. Practical resistors can be made of various compounds
and films, as well as resistance wire (wire made of a high-resistivity alloy, such as
nickel/chrome).

The primary characteristics of a resistor are the resistance, the tolerance, maximum
working voltage and the power rating. Other characteristics include temperature
coefficient, noise, and inductance. Less well-known is critical resistance, the value
below which power dissipation limits the maximum permitted current flow, and above
which the limit is applied voltage. Critical resistance depends upon the materials
constituting the resistor as well as its physical dimensions; it's determined by design.

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 MEMRISTOR

Resistors can be integrated into hybrid and printed circuits, as well as integrated
circuits. Size, and position of leads (or terminals) are relevant to equipment designers;
resistors must be physically large enough not to overheat when dissipating their power.

COLOUR CODING OF RESISTOR

Four-band identification is the most commonly used color-coding scheme on resistors. It

consists of four colored bands that are painted around the body of the resistor. The first two
bands encode the first two significant digits of the resistance value, the third is a power -of-
ten multiplier or number-of-zeroes, and the fourth is the tolerance accuracy, or acceptable
error, of the value.

Each color corresponds to a certain digit, progressing from darker to

lighter colors, as shown in the chart below

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 MEMRISTOR

For example, green-blue-yellow-red is 56×104 Ω = 560 kΩ ± 2%. An easier description

can be as followed: the first band, green, has a value of 5 and the second band, blue, has a
value of 6, and is counted as 56. The third band, yellow, has a value of 104, which adds
four 0's to the end, creating 560,000Ω at ±2% tolerance accuracy. 560,000Ω changes to
560 kΩ ±2% (as a kilos 103).

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 MEMRISTOR

2. CAPACITOR

A capacitor or condenser is a passive electronic component consisting of a pair of conductors

separated by a dielectric. When a voltage potential difference exists between the conductors, an
electric field is present in the dielectric. This field stores energy and produces a mechanical
force between the plates. The effect is greatest between wide, flat, parallel, narrowly separated
conductors.

An ideal capacitor is characterized by a single constant value, capacitance, which is

measured in farads. This is the ratio of the electric charge on each conductor to the
potential difference between them. In practice, the dielectric between the plates passes a
small amount of leakage current. The conductors and leads introduce an equivalent series
resistance and the dielectric has an electric field strength limit resulting in a breakdown
voltage.

Capacitors are widely used in electronic circuits to block the flow of direct current while
allowing alternating current to pass, to filter out interference, to smooth the output of
power supplies, and for many other purposes. They are used in resonant circuits in radio
frequency equipment to select particular frequencies from a signal with many frequencies.

ELECTRONIC SYMBOL

CURRENT-VOLTAGE RELATION

The current i (t ) through a component in an electric circuit is defined as the rate of change
of the charge q (t ) that has passed through it. Physical charges cannot pass through the
dielectric layer of a capacitor, but rather build up in equal and opposite quantities on the

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 MEMRISTOR

electrodes: as each electron accumulates on the negative plate, one leaves the positive plate.
Thus the accumulated charge on the electrodes is equal to the integral of the current, as well
as being proportional to the voltage (as discussed above). As with any antierivative, a
constant of integration is added to represent the initial voltage v (t0).
This is the integral form of the capacitor equation,

Taking the derivative of this, and multiplying by C, yields the derivative form,

The dual of the capacitor is the inductor, which stores energy in the magnetic field rather
than the electric field. Its current-voltage relation is obtained by exchanging current and
voltage in the capacitor equations and replacing C with the inductance L.

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 MEMRISTOR

3. INDUCTOR

An inductor or a reactor is a passive electrical component that can store energy in a

magnetic field created by the electric current passing through it. An inductor's ability to store
magnetic energy is measured by its inductance, in units of henries. Typically an inductor is
a conducting wire shaped as a coil, the loops helping to create a strong magnetic field inside
the coil due to Faraday's law of induction. Inductors are one of the basic electronic
components used in electronics where current and voltage change with time, due to the ability
of inductors to delay and reshape alternating currents Inductance (L) (measured in henries) is
an effect resulting from the magnetic field that forms around a current-carrying conductor that
tends to resist changes in the current. Electric current through the conductor creates a magnetic
flux proportional to the current. A change in this current creates a change in magnetic flux that,
in turn, by Faraday's law generates an electromotive force (EMF) that acts to oppose this
change in current. Inductance is a measure of the amount of EMF generated for a unit change
in current. For example, an inductor with an inductance of 1 henry produces an EMF of 1 volt
when the current through the inductor changes at the rate of 1 ampere per second. The number
of loops, the size of each loop, and the material it is wrapped around all affect the inductance.

An inductor opposes changes in current. An ideal inductor would offer no resistance to a

Constant direct current; however, only superconducting inductors have truly zero electrical
resistance.

In general, the relationship between the time-varying voltage v(t) across an inductor
with inductance L and the time-varying current i(t) passing through it is described by

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 MEMRISTOR

the differential equation:

Inductors are used extensively in analog circuits and signal processing. Inductors in
conjunction with capacitors and other components form tuned circuits which can emphasize or
filter out specific signal frequencies. Applications range from the use of large inductors in
power supplies, which in conjunction with filter capacitors remove residual hums known
as the Mains hum or other fluctuations from the direct current output, to the small
inductance of the ferrite bead or torus installed around a cable to prevent radio frequency
interference from being transmitted down the wire. Smaller inductor/capacitor
combinations provide tuned circuits used in radio reception and broadcasting.

Two (or more) inductors which have coupled magnetic flux form a transformer, which is a
fundamental component of every electric utility power grid. The efficiency of a
transformer may decrease as the frequency increases due to eddy currents in the core
material and skin effect on the windings. Size of the core can be decreased at higher
frequencies and, for this reason, aircraft use 400 hertz alternating current rather than the
usual 50 or 60 hertz, allowing a great saving in weight from the use of smaller transformers.
An inductor is used as the energy storage device in some switched-mode power supplies.
The inductor is energized for a specific fraction of the regulator's switching frequency, and
de-energized for the remainder of the cycle. This energy transfer ratio determines the input-
voltage to output-voltage ratio. This XL is used in complement with an active semiconductor
device to maintain very accurate voltage control.
Inductors are also employed in electrical transmission systems, where they are used to depress
voltages from lightning strikes and to limit switching currents and fault current. In this field,
they are more commonly referred to as reactors.
Larger value inductors may be simulated by use of gyrator circuits.

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 MEMRISTOR

Fig: An inductor with two 47mH windings, as may be found in a power supply

Ideal and real inductors

An "ideal inductor" has inductance, but no resistance or capacitance, and does not dissipate or
radiate energy. However real inductors have side effects which cause their behavior to depart
from this simple model. They have resistance (due to the resistance of the wire and energy
losses in core material), and parasitic capacitance (due to the electric field between the turns
of wire which are at slightly different potentials). At high frequencies the capacitance begins
to affect the inductor's behavior; at some frequency, real inductors behave as resonant circuits,
becoming self-resonant. Above the resonant frequency the capacitive reactance becomes the
dominant part of the impedance. At higher frequencies, resistive losses in the windings
increase due to skin effect and proximity effect.
Inductors with ferromagnetic cores have additional energy losses due to hysteresis and eddy
currents in the core, which increase with frequency. At high currents, iron core inductors also
show gradual departure from ideal behavior due to nonlinearity caused by magnetic
saturation of the core. An inductor may radiate electromagnetic energy into surrounding space
and circuits, and may absorb electromagnetic emissions from other circuits,
causing electromagnetic interference (EMI). For real-world inductor applications,
these parasitic parameters may be as important as the inductance.

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 3
THE MISSING LINK: MEMRISTOR

There are six different mathematical relations connecting pairs of four fundamental
circuit variables viz. current I, voltage v, charge q, and magnetic flux Φ.
One of these relation (the charge is time integral of current) is determined from the
definition of two of the variables and another (the flux is the time integral of the
electromotive force or voltage) is determined from faraday’s law of induction. Thus
there should be four basic circuit elements described by the remaining relation between
the variables.

The relation between these fundamental elements can be shown as:

RESISTORS (v=RI)
Current
Voltage
(v) (i)

(v=dΦ/dt)
CAPACITORS (i=dq/dt) INDUCTORS
(q=Cv) Φ=Li

?
Charge Flux
(q) ? (Φ)

The relation between the charge and the flux was unknown, and so the device which
describes it. This led to the discovery of the fourth fundamental element which describes
the above missing relation between Charge and Flux.

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1. THE 4TH NEW FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT :

MEMRISTOR

Memristor is one of four basic electrical circuit components, joining the resistor, capacitor,
and inductor. The Memristor, short for ―memory resistor‖ was first theorized by student Leon
Chua in the early 1970s. He developed mathematical equations to represent the Memristor,
which Chua believed would balance the functions of the other three types of circuit elements.

Since, there is no proof of any practical device which shows memristance, according to
Chua’s paper
In the beginning of 2006, the group of researchers headed by R.Stanley Williams at HP labs,
developed a simple model of binary switch based on the coupled movement of both charge
dopants and electrons in the semiconductor and saw that the defining equations for this switch
were identical to Chua’s mathematical definitions of memristor and they were able to write
down a defining equation for memristance of this device in terms of its physical and geometric
properties

MEMRISTOR

FIG: A CROSSBAR ARRAY OF MEMRISTOR

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 MEMRISTOR

2. NEED OF MEMRISTOR

The known three fundamental circuit elements as resistor, capacitor and inductor relates four
fundamental circuit variables as electric current, voltage, charge and magnetic flux. In that we
were missing one element to relate charge to magnetic flux. That is where the need for the
fourth fundamental element comes in. This element has been named as MEMRISTOR.

FIG: RELATION BETWEEN ALL FOUR FUNDAMENTAL

ELEMENTS OF ELECTRONICS

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 4
MEMRISTOR: THEORY AND PROPERTIES

 
 Electronic Symbol





Chua defined the element as a resistor whose resistance level was based on the amount of
Charge that had passed through the Memristor


MEMRISTANCE
o Memristance is a property of an electronic component to retain its resistance
level even after power had been shut down or lets it remember (or recall) the
last resistance it had before being shut off.

 
 Chua’s. Theory
o Each Memristor is characterized by its memristance function describing the
charge-dependent rate of change of flux with charge.


As we know 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

o It can be inferred from this that memristance is simply charge-dependent

resistance. . i.e. ,
 
V(t) = M(q(t))*I(t)

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 MEMRISTOR


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 instantaneously varying charge. Alternating
current, however, may reveal the linear dependence in circuit operation
by inducing a measurable voltage without net charge movement—as

long as the maximum change in q does not cause much change in M.

 
CURRENT VS. VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS

o This new circuit element shares many of the properties of resistors and shares
the same unit of measurement (ohms). However, in contrast to ordinary
resistors, in which the resistance is permanently fixed, memristance may be
programmed or switched to different resistance states based on the history of
the voltage applied to the memristance material. This phenomena can be
understood graphically in terms of the relationship between the current flowing
through a Memristor and the voltage
Applied across the Memristor.
o In ordinary resistors there is a linear relationship between current and voltage
so that a graph comparing current and voltage results in a straight line. However,
for Memristors a similar graph is a little more complicated. It illustrates the
current vs. voltage behavior of memristance.

Current vs. Voltage curve demonstrating hysteretic effects of memristance.

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 MEMRISTOR

o In contrast to the straight line expected from most resistors the behavior of a Memristor
appear closer to that found in hysteresis curves associated with magnetic materials. As
observed above that two straight line segments are formed within the curve. These two
straight line curves may be interpreted as two distinct resistance states with the remainder
of the curve as transition regions between these two states.

1. HYSTERESIS MODEL

Hysteresis model illustrates an idealized resistance behavior demonstrated in accordance with above
current-voltage characteristic wherein the linear regions correspond to a relatively high resistance (RH)
and low resistance (RL) and the transition regions are represented by straight lines.

Fig: Idealized hysteresis model of resistance vs. voltage for memristance switch.

Thus for voltages within a threshold region (-VL2<V<VL1 in Fig. 4) either a high or low resistance
exists for the Memristor. For a voltage above threshold V L1 the resistance switches from a high to a
low level and for a voltage of opposite polarity above threshold V L2 the resistance switches back to a
high resistance.

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 MEMRISTOR

2. THE UNIQUE FEATURE: SELF PROGRAMMING

Stanley found an interesting feature of memristor that it can Re-program itself according to its
previous state for a given output.
This feature is revolution in the programming field of modern era. To verify their statement,
they have done a experiment which was related to programming of memristors. The
specifications of their experiment, which proved the fact about re-programming, is described
by an example.

Fig: Programmed memristor map and transistor interconnections.

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 MEMRISTOR

In this figure, “A” shows equivalent circuit schematic of the hybrid programmable logic
array. The dashed lines define the nanocrossbar boundary, the black dots are the
programmed memristors, VA through VD are the 4 digital voltage inputs and VOUT is the
output voltage. V1 and V2 are the transistor power supply voltage inputs. A single
nanowire has a resistance of ≈33 kΩ, and 4 connected in series provides a ≈130-kΩ on-
chip load resistor for a transistor.

Figure “B” illustrates the map of the conductance of the memristors in the crossbar. The
straight lines represent the continuous nanowires, and their colors correspond to those of the
circuit in A. The broken nanowires are the missing black lines in the array. The squares
display the logarithm of the current through each memristor at a 0.5-V bias.

The above figure is the equivalent circuit for testing the compound logic operation. This
circuit computes AB+CD from 4 digital voltage inputs, VA to VD, representing the 4 input
values A to D, respectively. The operations AB and CD are performed on 2 different rows in
the crossbar, and the results are output to inverting transistors, which then restore the signal
amplitudes and send voltages corresponding to NOT (AB) and NOT (CD), or equivalently A
NAND B and C NAND D and denoted using Boolean algebra as AB and CD, respectively,
back onto the same column of the crossbar. There, the operation AB X CD is performed and
the result is sent to another inverting transistor, which outputs the result AB X CD = AB +
CD = AB + CD, following from De Morgan’s Law, as an output voltage level on VOUT. The
signal path is emphasized by the thick colored lines red–blue– green from the inputs to the
output. In red, 2 programmed-ON memristors are linked to a transistor gate to perform as a
NAND logic gate with the inputs VA and VB in one operation or VC and VD in the other. In
blue, the outputs from the first 2 logic gates are then connected to the second stage NAND
gate formed from 2 other programmed-ON memristors and 1 transistor. The green line
shows the output voltage. This experiment began with the configuration of the array. The
conductivity of all of the crossbar nanowires was measured by making external connections
with a probe station to the contact pads at the ends of the fan out wires connected to each
nanowire, and those that were not broken or otherwise defective are shown as straight black
or colored lines. Each required programmed-ON memristor was configured by externally
applying a voltage pulse of +4.5 V across its contacting nanowires, whereas all other
memristors in the row and column of the target junction were held at 4.5/2 = 2.25 V, a
voltage well below the effective threshold such that those junctions were not accidentally
programmed ON.

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CHAPTER - 5
DELAY IN DISCOVERY OF MEMRISTOR

Memristor, was not been seen before because the effect depends on atomic-scale movements,
it only popped up on the Nan scale of William’s devices. Information can be written into the
material as the resistance state of the memristor in a few nanoseconds using few Pico joules of
energy-― as good as anything needs to be‖.

THE COUPLED VARIABLE-RESISTOR MODEL FOR A

MEMRISTOR

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 MEMRISTOR


The Diagram with a simplified equivalent circuit. V, voltmeter; A, ammeter. 


Applied voltage and resulting current as a function of time t for a typical
memristor. 

The equation given below describes the memristance of any device as a function of charge:

Where
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 device at any time t
D = Thickness of semiconductor film sandwiched between two metal contacts

For any material, this term is 1,000,000 times larger in absolute values at nanometer scale then is
at micrometer scale because of factor 1/D2 and memristance is correspondingly more significant.
So it
Was not possible to get the feel of memristance at millimeter scale that is why it took 30
years to
Discover this nanoscale component.

Fig: A MEMRISTOR AT NANOSCALE

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 6
WORKING OF MEMRISTOR

Semiconductors are doped to make them either p-type or n-type. For example, if silicon is
doped with arsenic, it become n-type. However, when we apply an electric field to piece of
n-type silicon, the ionized arsenics atoms sitting inside the silicon lattice will not move. We
do not want them to move, in any case. Pure titanium dioxide (TiO2), which is also a
semiconductor, has high resistance, just as in the case of intrinsic silicon, and it can also be
doped to make it conducting. If an oxygen atom, which is negatively charged, is removed
from its substantial site in TiO2, a positively charged oxygen vacancy is created (V0+) is
created, which act as a donor of electrons. These positively charged oxygen vacancies (V0+)
can be in the direction of current applying electric field. Taking advantage of this ionic
transport, a sandwich of thin conducting and non-conducting layers of TiO2 was used to
release memristor

Fig : Conduction mechanism in a memristor

(a) Broader electronic barrier when a negative potential is applied to electrode A
(b) Thin electronic barrier when a positive potential is applied to electrode A

Consider, we have two thin layers of TiO2, one highly conducting layer with lots of oxygen
vacancies(V0+ ) and the other layer undoped, which is highly resistive. Suppose that good
ohmic contact are formed using platinum electrodes on either side of sandwich of TiO2. The
electronics barrier between the undoped TiO2 and the metal looks broader. The situation remains the
same, even when a negative potential I applied to electrode A, because the positively charged oxygen
vacancies (V0+) are attracted towards electrode A and the length of undoped region increases. Under

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 MEMRISTOR

these conditions the electronics barrier at the undoped TiO2 and the metal is still too wide and it
will be difficult for the electrons to cross over the barrier.

However, when a positive potential is applied at electrode A the positively charged oxygen
vacancies are repelled and moved into the undoped TiO2. This ionic movement towards electrode
B reduces the length of undoped region. When more positively charged oxygen
vacancies(V0+) reach the TiO2 metal interface, the potential barrier for the electrons become
very narrow, as shown, making tunneling through the barrier a real possibility. This leads to a
large current flow, making the device turn ON. In this case, the positively charged oxygen
vacancies (V0+) are present across the length of device. When the polarity of the applied
voltage is reversed, the oxygen vacancies can be pushed back into their original place on the
doped side, restoring the broader electronic barrier at TiO2 metal interface. This forces the
device to turn OFF due to an increase in the resistance of the device and reduce possibility for
carrier tunneling.

The specialty of Memristor is not just that it can be turned OFF or ON, but, that it can
actually remember the previous state. This is because when the applied bias is removed,
the positively charged Ti ions (which are actually the oxygen deficient sites) do not move
anymore, making the boundary between the doped and undoped layers TiO2 immobile.
When we next apply a bias (positive or negative) to the device, it starts from where it was
left. Unlike in the case of typical semiconductors, such as silicon in which only mobile
carrier moves, in the case of memristor both the ionic and the electron movement, into the
undoped TiO2 and out of undoped TiO2 are responsible for the hysteresis in its cuurent-
coltage characteristic.

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 7
ANALOGOUS SYSTEM

In William switches, the upper resistor was made of pure semiconductor, and the lower of
the oxygen-deficient material metal. Applying a voltage to the device pushes charged
bubbles up from the metal, radically reducing the semiconductor’s resistance and making
it into a full-blown conductor. A voltage applied in the other direction starts the merry-go-
round revolving the other way: the bubbles drain back into the lower layer, and the upper
layer reverts to a high resistance, semiconducting state.
The crucial thing is that, every time when the voltage is switched off, the merry-go-round
stops and the resistance is frozen. When the voltage is switched on again, the system
―remembers‖ where it was, waking up in the same resistance state.
The analogous system of memory resistor or ―memristor‖ is perfectly explained, assuming
that memristor behaves like a pipe whose diameter varies according to the amount and
direction of
current passing through it.

FIG: A RESISTOR WITH MEMORY BEHAVES LIKE A PIPE


 of pipe remains same when the current is switched off, until it is switched
The diameter
 on again.

 the current is switched on again, remembers what current has flowed
The pipe, when
through it.

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 8
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS

1. NANO-SCALE NATURE

The main objective in the electronic chip design is to move computing beyond the
physical and fiscal limits of conventional silicon chips. For decades, increases in chip
performance have come about largely by putting more and more transistors on a circuit. Higher
densities, however, increase the problems of heat generation and defects and affect the basic
physics of the devices.

Instead of increasing the number of transistors on a circuit, we could create a hybrid

circuit with fewer transistors but with the addition of Memristors which could add
functionality. Alternately, Memristor technologies could enable more energy-efficient high-
density circuits.

Memristor, was not been seen before because the effect depends on atomic-scale
movements, it only popped up on the nanoscale of William’s devices. Information can be
written into the material as the resistance state of the memristor in a few nanoseconds using
few Pico joules of energy-― as good as anything needs to be‖. And once written memory
stays written even when the power is shut.

2. REPLACEMENT OF FLASH MEMORY

The important potential use of memristor is as a powerful replacement for flash memory-
the kind used in applications that require quick writing and rewriting capabilities, such as in
cameras and USB memory sticks. Like flash memory, memristiev memory can only be
written 10,000 times or so before the constant atomic movements within the device cause it
to break down. It is possible to improve the durability of memristors

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 MEMRISTOR

3. REPLACEMENT FOR DRAM

Computers using conventional D-RAM lack the ability to retain information once they are
turned off. When power is restored to a D-RAM-based computer, a slow, energy-consuming
"boot-up" process is necessary to retrieve data stored on a magnetic disk required to run the
system. the reason computers have to be rebooted every time they are turned on is that their
logic circuits are incapable of holding their bits after the power is shut off. But because a
Memristor can remember voltages, a Memristor-driven computer would arguably never need
a reboot. ―You could leave all your Word files and spreadsheets open, turn off your computer,
and go get a cup of coffee or go on vacation for two weeks

4. BRAIN-LIKE SYSTEMS

As for the human brain-like characteristics, Memristor technology could one day lead
to computer systems that can remember and associate patterns in a way similar to how people
do.
This could be used to substantially improve facial recognition technology or to provide
more complex biometric recognition systems that could more effectively restrict access to
personal information. These same pattern-matching capabilities could enable appliances that
learn from experience and computers that can make decisions.

It is observed that the complex electrical response of synapses to the ebb and flow of
potassium and sodium ions across the membrane of each cell which allows the synapses to
alter their response according to the frequency and strength of the signals. It looked
maddeningly similar to the response a memristor would produce.

FIG: NEURAL NETWORKS

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 MEMRISTOR

CHAPTER - 9
COST

Hewlett-Packard surprised the electronics industry in 2008 by building the first working
memristor – a fundamentally new kind of electronic circuit that can store multiple levels of
data in a single cell. Since then, HP has touted memristors as a revolutionary alternative to
transistors that is poised to transform computing, and the $77 billion memory chip market,
with chips that are fast, durable and energy efficient, and retain data when powered off.

Each $220 Knowm chip contains eight memristor circuits

Knowm Inc., a small Santa Fe, N.M., company have brought the industry’s first
memristor chips to market.

Knowm’s chips, priced at $220 each, are clearly intended for experimentation, not
actual production.
CEO Alex Nugent, who co-founded Knowm after working for Los Alamos National
Laboratory, concedes that these initial memristor chips are expensive and far from ready for
commercial use. But they’re a starting point for researchers to learn about the technology.

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CHAPTER - 10
NEW HORIZONS

After the discovery of memristor the authors have taken a new step towards the new
devices with properties like memristor.
In 2009, Ventra, Pershin, and Chua extended the concept of the memristor to
memcapacitor and meminductor, which are defined by the charge–voltage relation and the
current–flux relation, respectively. These memory devices are common at the nanoscale,
where the dynamical characteristics of ions and electrons are likely to depend on the
histories of the systems that exhibit their memorability. These nanoscale devices can store
information without a power source, and their combination in circuits is likely to find new
applications in non-volatile memory, and to simulate learning, adaptive, and spontaneous
behaviors. Therefore, the nanoscale memory device is becoming a new hot spot in
research.
In 2009, a piecewise model of the memcapacitor was presented. In fact, it has long been
found that a nanoscale capacitor possesses a memory effect, and shows a capacitance–
voltage or charge–voltage hysteresis characteristic, the examples include Ge nanocrystal
embedded Hf-aluminate high- k gate dielectric metal oxide semiconductor structure
containing nanocrystals deposited by ion-beam-assisted electron beam deposition. Since
then some systems with the memcapacitance property have been found, including
vanadium dioxide metamaterials, ionic memcapacitive effects in nanopores, the analog
memory capacitor based on field configurable ion-doped polymers, and the solid-state
memcapacitive system with negative and diverging capacitance.

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 MEMRISTOR

There are two such elements which were next discovered:

1. MEMCAPACITOR
2. MEMINDUCTOR

The memcapacitor meminductor are the memdevices in which the capacitance and
inductance respectively depends on the state and history of the system.
They show pinched hysteresis loop in the constitutive variables that define them:-

Charge-voltage for Memcapaciatnce

Current –flux for Meminductance

The difference between the Memristor and both these devices is that they store energy
whereas memristor cannot.

MEMCAPACITOR MEMINDUCTOR

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CHAPTER - 11
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. In fact, it can be hoped to combine Memristors
with traditional circuit-design elements to produce a device that does computation. The
Hewlett-Packard (HP) group is looking at developing a Memristor-based nonvolatile memory
that could be 1000 times faster than magnetic disks and use much less power.

As rightly said by Leon Chua and Stanley Williams (originators of Memristor),

“Memristors are so significant that it would be mandatory to re-write the
existing Electronics Engineering textbooks”.

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REFERENCES

1. WWW.GOOGLE.COM

2. WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM

3. WWW.HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM

4. LEON CHUA’S PAPER, 1971

5. HTTP://WWW.MEMRISTOR.ORG/

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