Memristive devices and circuits for computing, memory, and neuromorphic applications.

A memristor, memory resistor, is a two-terminal nanodevice that can be made as thin as a single-atom-thick that has become of tremendous interest for its potential to revolutionise electronics, computing, computer architectures, and neuromorphic engineering. This thesis encompasses two major parts containing original contributions, (Part I) modelling and fabrication, and (Part II) circuit application and computing. Each part contains three chapters. The fundamentals necessary for understanding the main idea of each chapter are provided therein. A background chapter revolving around memristors and memristive devices is given. A system overview links the two parts together. A brief description of the two parts is as follows: Part I—modelling and fabrication is relevant to modelling and fabrication of memristors. A basic modelling approach following the early modelling by Hewlett- Packard is presented and tested with several simple circuits. Memristor fabrication process and materials are discussed and two different fabrication runs along with initial measurement results are presented. SPICE modelling for two memristive devices, (i) the memristor and (ii) the complementary resistive switch are also provided. Part II—nanocrossbar array and memristive-based memory and computing provides an analytical approach for crossbar arrays based on memristive devices. Proposed designs for memristor-based content addressable memories and their analysis are given. This part provides a binary/ternary content addressable memory structure based on a new complementary resistive switch. A number of fundamental building blocks for analogue and digital computing are also presented in this section. The observation of implementing a learning process based on a pair of spikes is also shown and an extension of such a process to a relatively large scale structure based on SPICE simulation is reported. In addition to these original contributions, the thesis offers an introductory background on memristors, in the area of materials and applications. The thesis also provides a system overview of the targeted system (a CMOS-memristor imager system), which provides a the link between the two parts of the thesis. In addition to the original contributions in the area of modelling and characterisation, an overview on the understanding of the memristor element via the quasistatic expansion of Maxwell’s equations is discussed.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2012