Seminar on

Memristic System

Ganesh D. Tripathi
Deptt of Electronics & Communication
Final Year
Seminar on
RRAM

Ganesh D. Tripathi
Deptt of Electronics & Communication
Final Year
 Outline
Memristor / RRAM

History

Applications

Physics

Conclusions Memristor, HP labs

Memristor / RRAM

Memristor symbol Memristor, HP labs

 History
1971: The theory of the Memristor 2008: HP has a working memristor prototype

1960s: Resistance switching End of 1990s: Research on resistance switching

 Applications
RRAM, successor to:
Memristor

DRAM

Mass storage devices

Memristor, HP labs
 Physics
Schematic view of RRAM cell

Materials/structures used

Perovskite oxides
 Transition metal oxides


Molecular materials

Reasons for resistance switching

Schematic view of RRAM
cell

Al / TiOx / Al ”Sandwich”
Materials/structures
used
Perovskite oxides
SrTiO3 (STO), SrZrO3 (SZO)

SZO

Perovskite oxide structure

SrZrO3 (SZO) – Voltage – Current diagram
Materials/structures
used
Transition metal oxides
TiO2, Co-O

Al / TiOx / Al ”Sandwich”

TMO – Voltage – Current diagram

Memristor, HP labs
Materials/structures
used
Molecular materials
 Conductive filaments Conductive filaments

 Interfacial effects

 Trapped charges
Interfacial effects

Trapped charges
 Reasons for resistance
switching
”...so far the reasons for the
resistive switching induced by
voltage pulse or bias voltage are
not clear.”
- Chih-Yi Liu, Pei-Hsun Wu, Arthur Wang, Wen-Yueh Jang,
Jien-Chen Young, Kuang-Yi Chiu, and Tseung-Yuen Tseng,
”Bistable Resistive Switching of a Sputter-Deposited Cr-
doped SrZrO3 Memory Film”, IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE
LETTERS, VOL. 26, NO. 6, JUNE 2005
”The microscopic nature of
resistance switching and charge
transport in such devices is till
under debate, but one proposal
is that the hysteresis requires
some sort of atomic
rearrangement that modulates
the electronic current.”
- Dmitri B. Strukov, Gregory S. Snider, Duncan R. Stewart &
R. Stanley Williams, ”The missing memristor found”, Nature,
Vol 453, 1 May 2008, doi:10.1038/nature06932
 Conclusions
 The reason for resistance switching is unknown


RRAMs can be build by different kinds of materials


The RRAM has advantages on today's memories

 The memristor is found and may have other applications

than RRAM
 Sources

H. Shima, Y. Tamai, Oxide nanolayer improving RRAM operational performance, Microelectron. J (2008),
doi:10.1016/j.mejo.2008.06.096


Chih-Yang Lin, Chih-Yi Liu, Chun-Chieh Lin, T.Y, Tseng, ”Current status of resistive nonvolatile memories”, J Electroceram, DOI
10.1007/s10832-007-9081-y, 2007

Dmitri B. Strukov, Gregory S. Snider, Duncan R. Stewart & R. Stanley Williams, ”The missing memristor found”, Nature, Vol 453,
1 May 2008, doi:10.1038/nature06932

Chih-Yang Lin, Meng-Han Lin, Ming-Chi Wu, Chen-Hsi Lin, Tseung.Yuen Tseng, ”Improvement of Resistive Switching
Characteristics in SrZrO3 Thin Films With Embedded Cr Layer”, IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, VOL. 29, NO. 10,
OCTOBER 2008

Chih-Yi Liu, Pei-Hsun Wu, Arthur Wang, Wen-Yueh Jang, Jien-Chen Young, Kuang-Yi Chiu, and Tseung-Yuen Tseng, ”Bistable
Resistive Switching of a Sputter-Deposited Cr-doped SrZrO3 Memory Film”, IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS, VOL. 26, NO.
6, JUNE 2005
• The world’s smallest
memristive switch. • A passive two-
– (50 x 50 nanometers) terminal circuit
elements that
• Information storage maintains a
device. functional
relationship between
• A concentration of the time integrals of
memory resistors. current and voltage.
• A type of electrical
circuit.

• The fourth mystery

element that joins the
capacitor, resistor,
and inductor.
• Provides greater • Combines the jobs
resiliency and of working memory
reliability when and hard drives into
power is interrupted one tiny device.
in data centers.
• Faster and less
• Have great data expensive than
density. MRAM.
• Uses less energy • Operating outside
and produces less of 0s and 1s allows
heat. it to imitate brain
functions.
• Would allow for a – Eliminates the
need to write
quicker boot up
computer programs
since information is that replicate small
not lost when the parts of the brain.
device is turned off.
• Creating a • Density allows for
Computer that more information to
never has to boot be stored.
up.
• Has the capacity to
• Does not lose remember the
information when charge that flows
turned off. through it at a given
point in time.
• Conventional • Faster than Flash
devices use only 0 memory.
– Allow digital cameras to
and 1; Memristor take pictures with no
can use anything delay inbetween.
between 0 and 1
(0.3, 0.8, 0.5, etc.) • Innovating
nanotechnology due to
the fact that it performs
better the smaller it
becomes.
• By changing the • A fast and hard
speed and strength current causes it to
of the current, it is act as a digital
possible to change device.
the behavior of the
device. • A soft and slow
current causes it to
act as an analog
device.
• Hope to one day
have a computer that
processes
information in the
same way as the
human brain.
– Gaining control over
the device could
lead to computers
that actually learn. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080501-maintaining-
moores-law-with-new-memristor-circuits.html
• Development of • Could lead to the
nonvolatile memory replacement of the
with a memristor transistor.
base.
– HP is currently
focusing on this • Appliances that
possibility. “learn” from
– Use less power. experiences.
– More magnetic than
magnetic disks.
• Could be put in cell • Used in common
phones as devices for
monitoring devices unbelievable
to track pollution storage.
and other things in – Camera can take
the environment. days worth of video
with storage the
size of an average
thumb drive.
• Resistor - a two-terminal electronic component
designed to oppose an electric current by
producing a voltage drop between its terminals
in proportion to the current.

• Inductor-a passive electrical component with

significant inductance

• Capacitor- an electronic device that can store

energy in the electric field between a pair of
conductors.
• Nanotechnology- a field of applied
science whose theme is the control of
matter on an atomic and molecular scale.

• MRAM- ( Magnetoresistive Random

Access Memory ) a non-volatile
computer memory technology.
• Nick Desaulniers
• First Year Computer Engineering Major,
RIT
• All Around PC knowledge
• Rochester BarCamp ’09 is my first
BarCamp!
 Memristor
• Concept introduced in a paper in 1971; first
memristor created in lab April 30, 2008
• First basic element since resistor, capacitor
and inductor
• Very small; can hold a 1 or 0 with or without
power
• Can be fashioned into non-volatile solid state
memory
• 100 gigabits in a square centimeter at one
tenth the speed of DRAM
• A memristor is a semiconductor whose
resistance varies as a function of flux and
current. This allows it to “remember” what
has passed through the circuit.
• This technology may replace transistors,
NAND flash memory, and even digital
logic as we know it.
• Emerging technology in working prototype
phase.
• Physics behind memristic theory
• Chemistry behind memristic design
• Future technologies and potential of
memrisitic systems
• Theory developed in 1971 by Professor
Leon Chua of U. C. Berkeley
• Found while exploring symmetry between
the three fundamental passive linear
circuit elements.
• Voltage, V (V) – potential difference
between two points.
• Current, I (A) – flow of electric charge
• Flux, Φ(W) – rate of flow through an area
• Charge, Q (C) – energy per electron
• Current is the derivative of Charge

• Voltage is the derivative of Flux

V I

Q Φ
• Capacitor,C (F)
• Resistor,R (Ω)
• Inductor,L (H)
Image Credit: electronicrepairguide.com
Image Credit: queenmao.com

Image Credit: wilcocorp.com

q=Cv
Image Credit: queenmao.com
 V I

Capacitors q=Cv

Q Φ
• Ohm’s
Law
• v=Ri Image Credit: electronicrepairguide.com
 Resistors

V I
v=Ri

Capacitors q=Cv

Q Φ
• Φ=Li
Image Credit: wilcocorp.com
 Resistors

V I
v=dΦ/dt v=Ri i=dq/dt

Capacitors q=Cv Inductors

Φ=Li

?
Q Φ

?
 Fundamental Memrisitive System Theorem:
• Any two-terminal device which exhibits a
pinched hysteresis loop in the voltage vs.
current plane, thereby relating charge and
flux.

Image Credits: ieee.org

• Φ=Mq
• dΦ/dt = M(q) dq/dt
• V(t) = M(q) I
• P=IV
• P = I² M(q)
• P = I² R
 Resistors

V I
v=dΦ/dt v=Ri i=dq/dt

Capacitors q=Cv Inductors

Φ=Li

Φ=Mq
Q Φ
Memristors
 Ex. Evolution of Laws of Motion
• F = mv (Aristotle 300’s B.C.E.)
• F = ma (Sir Isaac Newton 1680’s A.C.E.)
• F = mv(1-v/c)^(-1/2) (Albert Einstein
1940’s A.C.E.)
• “New scientific ideas do not succeed by
converting contemporary scientists, but
rather by their opponents dyeing off.
~Max Planck
 • The sixth
generation is
predicted to be
quantum
computing or
molecular
switching
Image Credit: Lifeboat.com
• O Vacancy Drift Model for TiOv(2-x) Switch (Developed
by R. Stanley Williams of HP Labs, 2008)

2 nm PT TiOv(2-x) PT
TiO2

3 nm

Reduced
Oxidized
• The rate of change of the resistance forms a
piecewise linear function that may be interpreted
for current and past states.
• Found when researching ways to overcome
nano-scale manufacturing issues.
• Memristivity has an inverse square relationship
with thickness of the material, so smaller =
better!
• Nonvolatile state can be accomplished by
memristors because their state is encoded by
impedance (physically), not by voltage.
• Used to make solid state memory from memristors.
Redox-based Oxide Memory currently has write times
<10 ns, which makes it competitive with flash memory.

Image Credit: blogspot.com

Image Credit: hardwaremania.com

• High Scaling Potential
– “Many terabits per square centimeter is
conceivable” ~R. Stan Williams, HP Labs
– 100 GBs of memory made from memristors
on same area of 16 GBs of flash memory.
– High Defect Tolerance allows high defects to
still produce high yields as opposed to one
bad transistor which can kill a CPU.
– “Self Healing VLSI Design”
• Compatible with current CMOS interfaces
• Power Consumption
– As non-volatile memory, memristors do not consume
power when idle.
• Size
– 3 Memristors to make a NAND gate
– 27 NAND gates to make a Memristor
– CMOS NAND Area 36 x (FP)² = .3µ² @ 45 nm
– Memristor NAND Area 3 x (FP)² = .05µ² @ 45 nm
• Though hundreds of thousands of memristor
semiconductors have already been built, there is
still much more to be perfected.
• Dissipates heat when being written to or read.
• Needs more defect engineering.
• No design standards (rules).
• Fair endurance (overlookable e.g.. Transistors).
• Being implemented to do neural
computing. (post office, banks).
• Pattern recognition and learning.
• Crossbar latches to replace transistors.
• Smaller, lower power consumption SSDs.
• New forms signal processing and control
systems.
• Memristors can be used to do digital logic
using implication instead of NAND.