Lobachevsky University scientists from the Stochastic Multistable Systems Laboratory (StoLab) have patented a new method to estimate the microstructure of electronic current fluctuations in memristor filaments. The authors of the invention are: Bernardo Spagnolo, Head of the StoLab laboratory, Professor at the University of Palermo (Italy); Arkady Yakimov, Professor at the Department of Statistical Radiphysics and Mobile Communication Systems; Oleg Gorshkov, Director of the Research and Education Centre "Physics of Solid State Nanostructures"; Dmitry Filatov, lead researcher at the REC "Physics of Solid State Nanostructures"; Alexey Klyuev, Associate Professor at the Department of Statistical Radiophysics and Mobile Communication Systems; Victor Kochergin, postgraduate student, and Nikolay Shtraub, masters student.
A memristor is a passive element capable of changing its resistance depending on the charge flowing through it. This makes it a non-volatile memory device, which can be more efficient than the flash memory used in computers and smartphones. It can completely replace RAM, and we can forget about the concept of "booting up the system" in a computer. We’ll be able to continue our work from where it was last stopped. Thus, a breakthrough can be made in the field of computing technology with the help of memristors. However, improvements in memristor technology require ever more sophisticated and accurate non-destructive methods for analysing their performance parameters.
"A newly-patented method for analysing memristor performance is based on the analysis of the electronic current microstructure. Elementary diffusion surges of oxygen ions affect the electronic current through a single conductive filament in the memristor, causing current fluctuations. By investigating the microscopic structure of the electronic current fluctuations through the filament, one can estimate the electrophysical parameters of memristive structures as a whole. The uniqueness of the invention lies in the fact that the spectrum of low-frequency noise (fluctuations) in the electronic current through the memristor is processed by taking into account the filament’s geometric parameters. With these spectra, one can determine the magnitude of current spikes resulting from elementary surges of individual oxygen ions in and around the filament, as well as the number of such ions," StoLab comments.
The proposed method extends the arsenal of measurement technology in the production of memristors, which have become the basis for a new generation of non-volatile memory devices. Future applications of memristors range from computers to creating artificial synapses in complex neural networks.
