An analytical approach to engineer multistability in the oscillatory response of a pulse-driven ReRAM

Scientific Reports, vol. 14, pp. 5626

Abstract

A nonlinear system, exhibiting a unique asymptotic behaviour, while being continuously subject to a stimulus from a certain class, is said to suffer from fading memory. This interesting phenomenon was first uncovered in a non-volatile tantalum oxide-based memristor from Hewlett Packard Labs back in 2016 out of a deep numerical investigation of a predictive mathematical description, known as the Strachan model, later corroborated by experimental validation. It was then found out that fading memory is ubiquitous in non-volatile resistance switching memories. A nonlinear system may however also exhibit a local form of fading memory, in case, under an excitation from a given family, it may approach one of a number of distinct attractors, depending upon the initial condition. A recent bifurcation study of the Strachan model revealed how, under specific train stimuli, composed of two square pulses of opposite polarity per cycle, the simplest form of local fading memory affects the transient dynamics of the aforementioned Resistive Random Access Memory cell, which, would asymptotically act as a bistable oscillator. In this manuscript we propose an analytical methodology, based on the application of analysis tools from Nonlinear System Theory to the Strachan model, to craft the properties of a generalised pulse train stimulus in such a way to induce the emergence of complex local fading memory effects in the nano-device, which would consequently display an interesting tuneable multistable oscillatory response, around desired resistance states. The last part of the manuscript discusses a case study, shedding light on a potential application of the local history erase effects, induced in the device via pulse train stimulation, for compensating the unwanted yet unavoidable drifts in its resistance state under power off conditions.

Authors 6

1. Alon Ascoli corresponding

   Politecnico di Torino · Technische Universität Dresden

   Affiliation as printed

   Politecnico di Torino, Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Turin, 10129, Italy. alon.ascoli@polito.it

   Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Circuits and Systems, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dresden, 01069, Germany. alon.ascoli@polito.it

   Politecnico di Torino, Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Turin, 10129, Italy

2. Ioannis Messaris

   Technische Universität Dresden

   Affiliation as printed

   Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Circuits and Systems, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dresden, 01069, Germany

3. Ahmet Şamil Demirkol

   Technische Universität Dresden

   Affiliation as printed

   Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Circuits and Systems, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dresden, 01069, Germany

4. John Paul Strachan Aachen

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Peter Grünberg Institute, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

   RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

5. Ronald Tetzlaff

   Technische Universität Dresden

   Affiliation as printed

   Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Circuits and Systems, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dresden, 01069, Germany

6. Leon Ong Chua

   University of California, Berkeley

   Affiliation as printed

   University of California Berkeley, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA