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MEMRISTORS

Devices layer up for stability

Nature Electronics volume 1, pages 98–99 (2018)Cite this article

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The stacking of different two-dimensional materials can be used to create memristors with high thermal stability.

A memristor is an electronic device that consists of two terminals and an electrical channel, the resistance of which can be tuned in an analogue manner by applying a voltage1,2. As a result, the device has a memorized resistance and could be of use in the development of storage technologies and biologically inspired computing. It was first postulated by Leon Chua in 1971 as a missing fourth fundamental circuit element, beyond the resistor, inductor and capacitor. Memristive behaviour has since been demonstrated in a range of variable two-terminal memories including resistive memory3, phase-change memory4 and floating-gate memory5. The devices have been shown to exhibit fast switching speeds, high endurance, low power consumption and high on/off ratios. Furthermore, simple memristor cross-bar structures allow for high connectivity and integration density, creating the potential for massive parallelism in neuromorphic networks6. However, conventional memristors rely on traditional oxide materials such as titanium or tantalum oxide and show poor thermal stability due to thermally activated hopping transport through trapped states. This hampers the application of the devices in harsh conditions, such as those demanded in the aerospace, automobile and oil and gas industries. Writing in Nature Electronics, J. Joshua Yang, Peng Wang, Feng Miao and colleagues now demonstrate that the stacking of thermally stable two-dimensional materials can create powerful memristors with good device reliability and thermal stability7.

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Fig. 1: Memristors based on two-dimensional layered materials.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Integrated Nanostructure Physics (CINAP), Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Quoc An Vu

  2. Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

    Woo Jong Yu

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  1. Quoc An Vu
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  2. Woo Jong Yu
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Correspondence to Woo Jong Yu.

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Vu, Q.A., Yu, W.J. Devices layer up for stability. Nat Electron 1, 98–99 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-018-0030-3

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