A general overview of memristor devices

Abstract

The nanoscale memristive devices will contribute to the development of new applications in the field of micro and nanoelectronics. Indeed, these nanodevices can bring new architectures and configurations, through their sizes, consumptions, functioning and their electronic properties, which differ considerably from the old devices. In 1971, Prof. Leon Chua of UC Berkeley has claimed that a fourth passive device should exist, which holds the relationship between magnetic flux and electric charge. In addition, this device named “memristor” was only manufactured in 2008 by HP Lab team. He also proved that the behavior of the memristor should complement the functions of the other three passive elements by bringing a new dynamic. The aim of this paper is to understand the memristor's operation, to introduce and to model its operation for new electronic functions, essentially nonlinear, and to reinforce its integration with other architectures such as CMOS.