Memristor-based nonvolatile synchronous flip-flop circuits

Abstract

Flip-flops are basic units for all kinds of sequential logic circuits and complex digital electronics systems, which can be used to store binary data owing to their two stable logic states 0 and 1. SR flip-flop and D flip-flop are widely employed in digital circuits as representative types of basic flip-flops. In this paper, logic circuits of nonvolatile synchronous SR flip-flop and D flip-flop are proposed, which utilize nanoscale memristors as the nonvolatile memory elements to store the information with different conductance states. The resistive switching property of memristors is well-suited for implementing trigger function in flip-flop circuits. Compared with traditional flip-flop ones, the proposed memristor-based SR flip-flop and D flip-flop have nonvolatile characteristic, which is suitable for occasions with unstable power supply. Meanwhile, the designed circuits provide experimental references for the development of digital circuit structures based on the feasibility of tight integration of memristors with CMOS circuitry.