1 Transistor – 1 Memristor Cell RRAM on flexible substrates advances

Researchers out of Korea recently published a paper on their success in implementing a single titanium oxide based memristor integrated with a single crystal silicon transistor. In addition to future research into improvements for the “read” problem of nonvolatile memory via a diode and unipolar resistor combination, they created and tested a 1 Transistor, 1 Memristor cell model on plastic substrates. When packing cells with the 1T-1M model, they were able to achieve random memory access without the prior difficulties of read-path problems encountered with electrical distortion and interference. The flexible transistor works to limit read current from these memristive sneak-paths. The test arrays were constructed of an 8×8 grid of transistor-memristor cells, and they were able to achieve a 2.8cm long flex to within 1.8cm of each edge, for 100 flex cycles.

One of the biggest problems the wearables industry has faced is the problem of power and state. Ultra-low voltage can only take viability of new material science applications so far; but true nonvolatile memory, especially with the ability to perform even simple logic-on-chip, is really one of the threshold changers to achieve. A recent paper from AIP NASA’s Center for Nanotechnology at Ames Research Center on “Copper oxide resistive switching memory for e-textiles” gives a pretty good overview of the state of the field in short summary: [link]

Copper Oxide Resistive Memory for Textile Applications, via [AIP].