Prepared by :

THANSAL K Y

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Known Three fundamental passive circuit elements:

Resistor, Inductor, Capacitor.

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Does a fourth fundamental element exist?

v

Resistor
dv=Rdi

Capacitor
dq=Cdv

Inductor
Memristor
Leon
the existence
of memristor
in 1971
In 2008Chua
a teamproposed
leaddF
by Stanley
Williams
created
the first
dF =Ldi
=Mdq
memristor

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What is a MEMRISTOR
Memristor is really a MEMory ResISTOR
Memristor can be defined as a two
terminal device which shows the
relation between magnetic flux
and charge
memristor symbol

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Memristor Theory

Or

Or

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Memristor and Resistor

The way resistor has resistance , memristor has
memristance.
Same unit ohm.
Memristance can be switched to different states.
Memristor has non linear v-i plot.

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Memristor features
resistance depends on magnitude, polarity and time
application of voltage.
Save its electronic state when current is turned off.
Remember how much current has passed through
it.

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Physical analogy for a memristor

Resistor is analogous to a pipe of fixed diameter
through which water is flowing
Water(charge q), input pressure(voltage v), rate of flow
of water(current i).
Resitance depends on diameter.
Memristor is analogous to a special kind of pipe that
expands or shrinks when water flows through it.
The pipe is directive in nature.
If water pressure is turned off, pipe will retain its most
recent diameter, until water is turned back on.
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Physical analogy for a memristor

Memristor

Pipe

Charge

Water

Conductance

Cross sectional area

Potential

Pressure

When water flows

in one direction
the diameter
increases
(resistance
decreases)

When water flows in

opposite direction
the diameter
decreases (resistance
increases)

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Why memristor
a fundamental element
Can not be duplicated by R,C,L.
Peculiar behaviour- carries memory of past.
Duplication requires alot of transistors and capacitors.

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V-I characteristics
Resistor-energy
dissipated
Capacitor-store
energy in electric field

Inductor-store
energy
in magnetic field
MEMRISTOR
Store Information
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Course of development
First predicted by Leon Chua in 1971 when he was a rising
professor at The university of california.
His paper Memristor-The missing circuit element.
was published in the IEEE Transactions on circuit theory.
First solid state version in 2008 by a research team led by
R.Stanley Williams of HP Labs.
Reported in a prestigious science journel, NATURE publishes
The missing memristor found.
Built from Titanium dioxide with cross bar structure.
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Construction of TiO2 memristor

Pt

TiO2-x

TiO2

Initially there are two layers, one

slightly depleted of Oxygen atoms,
other non-depleted layer.
The depleted layer has much
lower resistance than the nondepleted layer.

Equivalent circuit
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Working of TiO2 memristor

Tio2-x

Tio2

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Ron
Roff

Working as a switch

Off state (high resistance)

On state (low resistance)

1
Positive direction-close the switch.
Negative direction-open the switch.
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Memristor structure

Crossbar array
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.
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Crossbar array
Array of perpendicular wires.
Anywhere two perpendicular
wires cross, there is a switch
connecting them.
To connect any horizontal
wire to a vertical wire the
switch sandwiched between
those two wires must be
closed.
A crossbar array -a storage system.
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Types of memristors
1. Molecular and Ionic Thin Film Memristive Systems
Titanium dioxide memristors
Polymeric (ionic) memristors
2. Spin Based and Magnetic memristive systems
Spintronic Memristors/ Spin Torque Transfer
(STT)
uses magnetization to alter the spin direction of
electrons in two different sections of a device.
magnetization state of the device is changed by
current electron spin through spin torque
induced magnetization motion.
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Materials used
Oxides such as WO3,Ir2O3,ZrO2 and RhO2.
Other variations such as TiO ,CuO ,NiO, ZrO.

Perovskite materials.
Molecular and polymer materials- rotaxane

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Manufacturing
No need of expensive retooling.
Nanoimprint lithography.

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 A typical processor chip in a laptop contains over a

billion transistors.
In which transistors are 1000 times smaller than the
diameter of a human hair.
Its time to stop shrinking.
Further miniaturisation of transistors yields
unpredictable results.
The emphasis in electronics design will have to shift to
devices that are not just increasingly infinitesimal but
increasingly capable.
Memristor is the perfect example of such a device.

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Transistor

Memristor

3-terminal switching device with an

input electrode (e.g. source), an
output electrode (e.g. drain), and a
control electrode (e.g. gate).
Requires a power source to retain a
data state.
Stores data by electron charge.
Scalable by reducing the lateral
length and width dimensions
between the input and output
electrodes.
Capable of performing analog or
digital
electronic
functions
depending on applied bias voltages.
Fabrication
requires
optical
lithography.

2-terminal device with one of the

electrodes acting either as a control
electrode or a source electrode
depending
on
the
voltage
magnitude.
Does not require a power source to
retain a data state.
Stores data by resistance state.
Scalable by reducing the thickness of
the memristor materials.
Capable of performing analog or
digital
electronic
functions
depending on particular material
used for memristor.
Fabrication by potentially cheaper
mass production techniques such as
nanoimprint lithography.
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Benefits
Reliability when power is interrupted.
Great data density.
Less expensive.
Operating outside of 0s and 1s.
By changing current,behaviour can be changed.
Do not consume power when idle.
May replace transistors in ICs and has the potential to open door
to a brand new type of electronics.

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Future
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Applications
As a switch.

As a non volatile memory.

Booting free computers.
Can perform logic operations.

In artificial neural networks.

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Nonvolatile memories
The resistance-saving property makes memristors very appealing for use
in computer memory & freezing property prevents unintentional loss of
memory due to a power failure.
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Booting free computers

Instant-On Computers
Memristors would potentially be able to remove lengthy
reboot since it freezes when power off.
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Logic/computing
Memristors appear particularly important to the areas of reconfigurable
computing architectures such as FPGAs in which the arrangement between
arrays of basic logic gates can be altered by reprogramming the wiring
interconnections. Memristors may be ideal to improve the integration density
and reconfigurability of such systems.
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In artificial neural networks

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Synapse=memristor
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Hence artificial Brain

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Big companies involved

in research

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Conclusion
The rich hysteretic v-i characteristics detected in
many thin film devices can now be understood as
memristive behaviour.
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.
May replace transistors in Ics and has the potential
to open door to a brandpediain.com
new type of electronics.

Conclusion
It is sure that Memristor is going to revolutionaries the
21st century as radically as the transistor in the 20th
century
But Memristor will have to wait a few years ,like
transistor which had to wait almost a decade after its
invention for its popular applications.
Finally as Leon O Chua mentioned

Its time to rewrite all the EE textbooks

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References
"MemristorThe Missing Circuit Element",
IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory by Leon O
Chua (1971)
"Memristive Devices and Systems" in the
Proceedings of the IEEE by Leon Chua and his
student Sung Mo Kang (1976)
"The missing
(may2008)

memristor

found"

Nature

IEEE Spectrum - The Mysterious Memristor, by

Sally Adee (may 2008)
IEEE Spectrum - How We Found the Missing
Memristor, by R. Stanley Williams (dec 2008)
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Web links
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor
www.hpl.hp.com/news/2008/apr-jun/memristor.html
www.memristor.org
www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327151.600memristor-minds-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence.html

www.youtube.com/ucberkley
http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/07/24/
how-does-a-memristor-work/

www.spectrum.ieee.org

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Video links
Memristor and Memristive Systems Symposium (4 parts) total
of 5 hours

6-Minute Memristor Guide

Memristors The Missing Link(3:38)

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Any queries?...

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