Memristive devices for computing Yang, J Joshua; Strukov, Dmitri B; Stewart, Duncan R
Nature nanotechnology,
01/2013, Letnik:
8, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Memristive devices are electrical resistance switches that can retain a state of internal resistance based on the history of applied voltage and current. These devices can store and process ...information, and offer several key performance characteristics that exceed conventional integrated circuit technology. An important class of memristive devices are two-terminal resistance switches based on ionic motion, which are built from a simple conductor/insulator/conductor thin-film stack. These devices were originally conceived in the late 1960s and recent progress has led to fast, low-energy, high-endurance devices that can be scaled down to less than 10 nm and stacked in three dimensions. However, the underlying device mechanisms remain unclear, which is a significant barrier to their widespread application. Here, we review recent progress in the development and understanding of memristive devices. We also examine the performance requirements for computing with memristive devices and detail how the outstanding challenges could be met.
Nanoscale metal/oxide/metal switches have the potential to transform the market for nonvolatile memory and could lead to novel forms of computing. However, progress has been delayed by difficulties ...in understanding and controlling the coupled electronic and ionic phenomena that dominate the behaviour of nanoscale oxide devices. An analytic theory of the 'memristor' (memory-resistor) was first developed from fundamental symmetry arguments in 1971, and we recently showed that memristor behaviour can naturally explain such coupled electron-ion dynamics. Here we provide experimental evidence to support this general model of memristive electrical switching in oxide systems. We have built micro- and nanoscale TiO2 junction devices with platinum electrodes that exhibit fast bipolar nonvolatile switching. We demonstrate that switching involves changes to the electronic barrier at the Pt/TiO2 interface due to the drift of positively charged oxygen vacancies under an applied electric field. Vacancy drift towards the interface creates conducting channels that shunt, or short-circuit, the electronic barrier to switch ON. The drift of vacancies away from the interface annilihilates such channels, recovering the electronic barrier to switch OFF. Using this model we have built TiO2 crosspoints with engineered oxygen vacancy profiles that predictively control the switching polarity and conductance.
The missing memristor found Williams, R. Stanley; Strukov, Dmitri B; Snider, Gregory S ...
Nature (London),
05/2008, Letnik:
453, Številka:
7191
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Anyone who ever took an electronics laboratory class will be familiar with the fundamental passive circuit elements: the resistor, the capacitor and the inductor. However, in 1971 Leon Chua reasoned ...from symmetry arguments that there should be a fourth fundamental element, which he called a memristor (short for memory resistor). Although he 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. Here we show, using a simple analytical example, that memristance arises naturally in nanoscale systems in which solid-state electronic and ionic transport are coupled under an external bias voltage. These results serve as the foundation for understanding a wide range of hysteretic current-voltage behaviour observed in many nanoscale electronic devices that involve the motion of charged atomic or molecular species, in particular certain titanium dioxide cross-point switches.
Metal and semiconductor oxides are ubiquitous electronic materials. Normally insulating, oxides can change behavior under high electric fields--through 'electroforming' or 'breakdown'--critically ...affecting CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) logic, DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and flash memory, and tunnel barrier oxides. An initial irreversible electroforming process has been invariably required for obtaining metal oxide resistance switches, which may open urgently needed new avenues for advanced computer memory and logic circuits including ultra-dense non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) and adaptive neuromorphic logic circuits. This electrical switching arises from the coupled motion of electrons and ions within the oxide material, as one of the first recognized examples of a memristor (memory-resistor) device, the fourth fundamental passive circuit element originally predicted in 1971 by Chua. A lack of device repeatability has limited technological implementation of oxide switches, however. Here we explain the nature of the oxide electroforming as an electro-reduction and vacancy creation process caused by high electric fields and enhanced by electrical Joule heating with direct experimental evidence. Oxygen vacancies are created and drift towards the cathode, forming localized conducting channels in the oxide. Simultaneously, O(2-) ions drift towards the anode where they evolve O(2) gas, causing physical deformation of the junction. The problematic gas eruption and physical deformation are mitigated by shrinking to the nanoscale and controlling the electroforming voltage polarity. Better yet, electroforming problems can be largely eliminated by engineering the device structure to remove 'bulk' oxide effects in favor of interface-controlled electronic switching.
The authors of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors-the industry consensus set of goals established for advancing silicon integrated circuit technology-have challenged the ...computing research community to find new physical state variables (other than charge or voltage), new devices, and new architectures that offer memory and logic functions beyond those available with standard transistors. Recently, ultra-dense resistive memory arrays built from various two-terminal semiconductor or insulator thin film devices have been demonstrated. Among these, bipolar voltage-actuated switches have been identified as physical realizations of 'memristors' or memristive devices, combining the electrical properties of a memory element and a resistor. Such devices were first hypothesized by Chua in 1971 (ref. 15), and are characterized by one or more state variables that define the resistance of the switch depending upon its voltage history. Here we show that this family of nonlinear dynamical memory devices can also be used for logic operations: we demonstrate that they can execute material implication (IMP), which is a fundamental Boolean logic operation on two variables p and q such that pIMPq is equivalent to (NOTp)ORq. Incorporated within an appropriate circuit, memristive switches can thus perform 'stateful' logic operations for which the same devices serve simultaneously as gates (logic) and latches (memory) that use resistance instead of voltage or charge as the physical state variable.
AFM image of 17 nanodevices with a zoom‐in cartoon schematically shows an individual crosspoint device consisting of two Pt metal electrodes separated by a TiO2 bi‐layer memristive material. By ...applying an electric field across the memristive material, oxygen vacancies can drift up and down, leading to four current‐transport end‐states. The switching between these end‐states results in a family of nanodevices.
We present a complete phylogeny of macroperforate planktonic foraminifer species of the Cenozoic Era (∼65 million years ago to present). The phylogeny is developed from a large body of ...palaeontological work that details the evolutionary relationships and stratigraphic (time) distributions of species‐level taxa identified from morphology (‘morphospecies’). Morphospecies are assigned to morphogroups and ecogroups depending on test morphology and inferred habitat, respectively. Because gradual evolution is well documented in this clade, we have identified many instances of morphospecies intergrading over time, allowing us to eliminate ‘pseudospeciation’ and ‘pseudoextinction’ from the record and thereby permit the construction of a more natural phylogeny based on inferred biological lineages. Each cladogenetic event is determined as either budding or bifurcating depending on the pattern of morphological change at the time of branching. This lineage phylogeny provides palaeontologically calibrated ages for each divergence that are entirely independent of molecular data. The tree provides a model system for macroevolutionary studies in the fossil record addressing questions of speciation, extinction, and rates and patterns of evolution.
Memristor crossbars were fabricated at 40 nm half-pitch, using nanoimprint lithography on the same substrate with Si metaloxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOS FET) arrays to form fully ...integrated hybrid memory resistor (memristor)/transistor circuits. The digitally configured memristor crossbars were used to perform logic functions, to serve as a routing fabric for interconnecting the FETs and as the target for storing information. As an illustrative demonstration, the compound Boolean logic operation (C AND D) OR (C AND D) was performed with kilohertz frequency inputs, using resistor-based logic in a memristor crossbar with FET inverter/amplifier outputs. By routing the output signal of a logic operation back onto a target memristor inside the array, the crossbar was conditionally configured by setting the state of a nonvolatile switch. Such conditional programming illuminates the way for a variety of self-programmed logic arrays, and for electronic synaptic computing.
is a native fungal pathogen in western North America that causes black stain root disease (BSRD) of conifers. Three host-specialized varieties of this pathogen were previously described:
var.
on ...pinyon pines (
and
.
);
var.
, primarily on hard pines (e.g.,
.
,
.
); and
var.
on Douglas-fir (
). Morphological, physiological, and ecological differences among the three pathogen varieties have been previously determined; however, DNA-based characterization and analyses are needed to determine the genetic relationships among these varieties. The objective of this study was to use DNA sequences of 10 gene regions to assess phylogenetic relationships among
isolates collected from different hosts. The multigene phylogenetic analyses, based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference, strongly supported species-level separation of the three
varieties. These results, in conjunction with previously established phenotypic differences, support the elevation of
var.
and
var.
to the species level as
.
comb. nov. and
.
comb. nov., respectively, while maintaining
var.
as
. Characterization of the three
species, each with distinct host ranges, provides a baseline to further understand the ecological interactions and evolutionary relationships of these forest pathogens, which informs management of black stain root disease.
Abstract
We report the discovery of a highly circularly polarized, variable, steep-spectrum pulsar in the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) ...survey. The pulsar is located about 1° from the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud, and has a significant fractional circular polarization of ∼20%. We discovered pulsations with a period of 322.5 ms, dispersion measure (DM) of 157.5 pc cm
−3
, and rotation measure (RM) of +456 rad m
−2
using observations from the MeerKAT and the Parkes telescopes. This DM firmly places the source, PSR J0523−7125, in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This RM is extreme compared to other pulsars in the LMC (more than twice that of the largest previously reported one). The average flux density of ∼1 mJy at 1400 MHz and ∼25 mJy at 400 MHz places it among the most luminous radio pulsars known. It likely evaded previous discovery because of its very steep radio spectrum (spectral index
α
≈ −3, where
S
ν
∝
ν
α
) and broad pulse profile (duty cycle ≳35%). We discuss implications for searches for unusual radio sources in continuum images, as well as extragalactic pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds and beyond. Our result highlighted the possibility of identifying pulsars, especially extreme pulsars, from radio continuum images. Future large-scale radio surveys will give us an unprecedented opportunity to discover more pulsars and potentially the most distant pulsars beyond the Magellanic Clouds.