CHAPTER 7: MODELLING OF A MEMRISTOR

Although Chua proposed the existence of the fourth fundamental circuit element and showed that such an element has many interesting and valuable circuit properties, until now no one has presented either a useful physical model or an example of a memristor. This can be shown using a simple analytical example: Memristance arises naturally in nanoscale systems in which solid-state electronic and ionic transport are coupled under an external bias voltage.

For linear elements, in which M is a constant, memristance is identical to resistance. nonlinear relation between and for a sinusoidal input is generally a frequency-dependent can duplicate the circuit properties of a nonlinear Memristor. If M is a function of q, yielding a nonlinear circuit element, the characteristic of such a

Lissajous, and no combination of nonlinear resistive, capacitive and inductive components

The most basic mathematical definition of a current-controlled memristor for circuit analysis is the differential form = (()1)

= (2)

wher e is the state variable of the device and is a generalized resistance that depends upon the internal state of the device. Here the state variable is just the charge, but no one has been able to propose a physical model that satisfies these simple equations. In 1976 Chua and Kang generalized the memristor concept to a much broader class of nonlinear dynamical systems they called memristive systems, described by the equations = (, )..(3)

= (, ).(4)

Where can be a set of state variables and and can in general be explicit functions of time. Here, for simplicity, we restrict the discussion to current-controlled, time-

invariant, one-port devices. Note that, unlike in a memristor, the flux in memristive systems is no longer uniquely defined by the charge. However, equation (3) does serve to distinguish a memristive system from an arbitrary dynamical device; no current flows through the memristive system when the voltage drop across it is zero.

Electrical switching in thin-film devices has recently attracted renewed attention, because such a technology may enable functional scaling of logic and memory circuits well beyond the limits of complementary metaloxidesemiconductors. The microscopic nature of resistance switching and charge transport in such devices is still under debate, but one proposal is that the hysteresis requires some sort of atomic rearrangement that modulates the electronic current. On the basis of this proposition, we consider a thin semiconductor film of thickness D sandwiched between two metal contacts, as shown in Fig.????

The total resistance of the device is determined by two variable resistors connected in series (Fig. ????), where the resistances are given for the full length of the device. Specifically, the semiconductor film has a region with a high concentration of dopants (in this example assumed to be positive ions) having low resistance , and the remainder has a low (essentially zero) dopant concentration and much higher resistance .. The application of an external bias v(t) across the device will move the boundary between the two regions by causing the charged dopants to drift. For the simplest case of ohmic electronic conduction and linear ionic drift in a uniform field with average ion mobility , we obtain ( = )(R
() ()

Fig. 7.1: Model of Memristor

+ R (1

()

))...(5)

= v

()..(6)

which yields the following formula for w(t): = )(v

)(..(7)

By inserting equation ??? into equation ??? we obtain the memristance of this system, which for = simplifies to: = )( (1

))(....(8)

The q-dependent term in parentheses on the right-hand side of this equation is the crucial contribution to the memristance, and it becomes larger in absolute value for higher dopant mobilities and smaller semiconductor film thicknesses D. For any material, this term is 1,000,000 times larger in absolute value at the nanometre scale than it is at the micrometre scale, because of the factor of , and the memristance is correspondingly more significant. Thus, memristance becomes more important for understanding the electronic characteristics of any device as the critical dimensions shrink to the nanometre scale.

7.1 Linear Drift Model

Memristor has hysteretic current-voltage characteristics. This tutorial complements the pedagogy of ideal circuit elements (R,C, and L) and the properties of their circuits. An ideal capacitor is defined by the single-valued relationship between the charge q(t) and the voltage v(t) via dq= Cdv.an ideal resistor is defined by a single valued relationship between the current i(t) and the voltage v(t) via dv = Rdi, and an ideal inductor is defined by a singlevalued relationship between the magnetic flux (t) and the current i(t) via d = Ldi. Despite of the prediction of existence of the fourth circuit element, experimental realization of a quasi-ideal memristor - defined by the single-valued relationship d = Mdq- remained elusive. Early this year, Strukov and co-workers, presented an elegant physical model in which the memristor is equivalent to a time-dependent resistor whose value at time t is linearly proportional to the amount of charge q that has passed through it before.

The elegant model of a memristor consisted of a thin film (5 nm thick) with one layer of insulating TiO2 and oxygen-poorTiO2x each, sandwiched between platinum contacts. The oxygen vacancies in the second layer behave as charge +2 mobile dopants. These dopants create a doped TiO2 region with resistance lower than the resistance of the undoped region. The boundary between the doped and undoped regions, and therefore the effective resistance of the thin film, depends on the position of these dopants. It, in turn, is determined by their mobility D (1010 cm2/V.s)10 and the electric field across the doped region.11 Figure 2 the doped region with size w and the undoped region with size (Dw). The effective resistance of such a device is = )(

shows a schematic of a memristor of size D (D 10 nm) modelled as two resistors in series,

R + (1 ) ..(9)

Where RON (1k) is the resistance of the memristor if it is completely doped, and ROFF is its resistance if it is undoped. Although Eq.(9) is valid for arbitrary values of RON and ROFF, experimentally, the resistance of the doped TiO2 film is significantly smaller than the undoped film, ROFF/RON 102 1 and therefore _R = (ROFF RON) ROFF. In the presence of a voltage v(t) the current in the memristor is determined by Kirchoffsvoltage law v(t) = M(w)i(t). The memristive behavior of this system is reflected in the time dependence of size

of the doped region w(t). In the simplest model - the linear-drift model the boundary between the doped and the undoped regions drifts at a constant speed vD given by

= =

()...(10)

where we have used the fact that a current i(t) corresponds to a uniform electric field RONi(t)/D across the doped region. Since the (oxygen vacancy) dopant drift can either expand or contract the doped region, we characterize the polarity of a memristor by = 1, where = +1 corresponds to the expansion of the doped region. We note that switching the memristor polarity means reversing the battery terminals, or the plates of a capacitor (in an MC circuit) or reversing the direction of the initial current (in an ML circuit). Eqns.(1)-(2) are used to determine the i-v characteristics of a memristor. Integrating w(t)= 0 +

( = )+

()

..(11)

where is the initial size of the doped region. Thus, the width of the doped region w(t) changes linearly with the amount of charge that has passed through it.12 Q0 = D2/DRONis the charge that is required to pass through the memristor for the dopant boundary to move through distance D (typical parameters10 imply Q0 102 C). It provides the natural scale for charge in a memristive circuit. Substituting this result = )(

.(12)

whereR0 = RON (w0/D)+ROFF(1w0/D) is the effective resistance (memristance) at time t = 0. Eq.(4) shows explicitly that the memristance M(q) depends purely on the charge qthat has passed through it. Combined with v(t) = M(q)i(t), Eq.(4) implies that the model presented here is an ideal memristor.

To obtain analytical results for the i-v characteristics of a memristor:

For an ideal circuit with a single memristor and a voltage supply, Kirchoffs voltage law implies

()

= )(.(13)

The solution of this equation, subject to the boundary condition q(0) = 0 is = )( (= )

()

1 1
()

()..(14) .(15)

(())

()

Where (t) = dv( ) is the magnetic flux associated with the voltage v(t). Eqs.???? provide analytical results for i-v characteristics of an ideal memristor circuit. Eq. ???? shows that the charge is an invertible function of the magnetic flux3,4 consistent with the defining equation d= M(q)dq. Eq.???? shows that a memristor does not introduce a phase-shift between the current and the voltage, i = 0 if and only if v = 0. Therefore, unlike an ideal capacitor or an inductor, is a purely dissipative element.

7.2 Simulation on Matlab (Simulink)-Part (Simulink) I (i-v v plot)

A simulation of the above discussion carried out in Simulink (Matlab) is shown below. The following Block diagram simulated in simulink shows a subsystem with input Voltage (1V sinusoid of frequency 1 Hz, Flux (integral of voltage) and output current.

Fig. 7.2: 7. The i-v system designed in simulink The subsystem masks the following system which consists of blocks representing the constants of equation. The simulation when run at sample time of 0.05 sec and time period of 1 sec gives a perfect pinched hysteresis hysteres loop characteristic of a Memristor.

Fig. 7.3: The i-v i curve generated by simulink system

Fig. 7.4: The subsystem of i-v mask

7.2.1 Frequency dependance of memristance

f=20 rad/sec Frequ 75

f = 5 rad /sec

Freq 100 rad/sec

f= 25 , sample time 0.005

Frequ 150 rad/sec

f = 35 rad/sec and sample time 0.05

Freq 200

Frequency 50 rad/sec

Freq 250

7.3 Simulation on Matlab Simulink)-Part Simulink) II (q-flux flux plot)

A simulation of the above discussion carried out in Simulink (Matlab) is shown below. The following Block diagram simulated in simulink shows a subsystem with input Voltage (1V sinusoid of frequency 1 Hz, Flux (integral of voltage) and output current.
flux To Workspace3

1 s Sine_wave Integrator

f lux(t)

q(t)

Subsystem

Fig. 7.5: The simulink q-flux system

XY Graph

The subsystem masks the following system which consists of blocks representing the constants of equation. The simulation when run at sample time of 0.05 sec and time period of 1 sec gives a perfect pinched hysteresis loop characteristic of a Memristor.

Fig. 7.6: The q-flux q flux curve generated by the simulink system 43

Out1

Q_2
Out1

Out1

R_3 1 1-1 Add3

Out1

1 q(t)

delta_R1

-C-

2 1 sqrt 1-3 Add5 Can1 del ta_R2

Fig. 7.7 The subsystem of q-flux mask

44
Divide6

Nuy1

2Nuy

Di vide5

flux(t)

Bi nhphuong2

Out1

u2

R_2

Out1

Q_1

RESULT AND CONCLUSION

This project Memristors: Theory and Application has been an eyeopener as to the yet uncovered world of Memristors. As of the year 2010, Memristors has only been theoretically proved and physically realized at the nanoscale level.

The literature survey conducted as part of this project has opened up much areas of research considering Memristors including cheap manufacture of memristors, modelling of memristors.

The second part of the project was modelling on memristors using Neural networks. A successful study of the various traning methods available and which is best suited to train the network has been conducted. The training function by Levenberg Marquardt is deemed the best by the study having the shortest time for fitting a function.

The third part of the project is also a modeling of the Memristor which requires a separate mention simply by virtue of its serendipity. We would like to express our gratitude to Mr. Hoang Mang Thang (Hanoi Institute of Technology) for helping us to carry out the work. A new model of a Memristor named the Linear Drift Model was modeled in Matlab in Simulink. The model is seen to have very distinct pinched Hysteresis Loop and a flux-q curve compared to the previous attempt to model the Memristor using Neural Network. A further step was taken to study the effect of frequency on the pinched hysteresis loop. It was observed that as the input frequency reduced the hysteresis loop also decreased correspondingly.

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