Nanoscale Memristors for Nonvolatile Memory and Logic Applications

Abstract

The conventional charge-based memory devices and logic circuits based on metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS), which are essential components in the current electronic system, have faced technological and physical limitations due to power consumption and short channel effects related with scaling of characteristic device dimension. The memristor or memristive devices relying upon variation of its nonvolatile resistance has attracted a great deal of technological attention as not only promising next-generation nonvolatile memory, but also as functional blocks for logic gates, analog circuits, and artificial neuron network for realizing a scalable, low power, and high speed computing system. Various insulating or semiconducting materials have shown memristive switching behavior, including chalcogenides, organic materials, amorphous silicon, perovskite oxides, binary transition metal oxides, and even nanoparticle assembles.

Recently we have investigated the memristive switching mechanisms and applications of variuous nanoscale thin films, specifically graphene oxide (GO) [1-4] and poly(1,3,5-trimethyl-1,3,5-trivinyl cyclotrisiloxane) (pV3D3) film [5,6]. GO thin films-based flexible nonvolatile memory was developed and GO/MoS2/GO stack showing multilevel cell operation was explored for high density nonvolatile memory. Furthermore, pV3D3 thin films-based memristors have been very promising for the implementation of logic-in-memory architecture on flexible platform for advanced computer architecture. To understand the physics of memristive switching mechanism, the microscopic origin of memristive switching behavior was analysed via high –resolution transmission electron microscopy, in situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and low frequency noise measurement. All these works will pave the way for development of future nonvolatile memory and computing architecture.