Composite Characteristics of Memristor Series and Parallel Circuits

Abstract

Memristors have attracted considerable attention since their physical realization was reported by Hewlett-Packard (HP) Lab in 2008. Their distinctive properties like nonvolatility, re-configurability and analog processing capability have found promising potential in developing future neuromorphic computing systems, next-generation nonvolatile memories, etc. However, the device characteristics of memristors and their utilizations have not been fully studied. Particularly, predicting the composite behaviors in memristor series and parallel circuits is challenging because of the polarity- and state-dependent electric property of individual memristors. In this paper, the composite characteristics of multiple memristor circuits in series and parallel, respectively, are investigated comprehensively. Specifically, the transient behaviors are revealed in terms of the changes of charge or flux thresholds of the memristors and the conditions to achieve the steady state through transient state are also studied. Furthermore, their composite electric properties in the steady state are presented. Finally, the impact of unavoidable process variations of memristors on composite behaviors is analyzed based on massive Monte-Carlo simulations.