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HP Labs ponders robot autonomy and synapse-like memristors

A collaboration between HP Labs and the University of California, Santa Barbara, has produced the most detailed understanding yet of the properties of memory transistors.

These so-called memristors are very simple structures, but have the ability to remember the electronic charge that passes through them. The researchers suggest they could behave like synapses in a circuit, according to this blogpost over at the Institute of Physics. But little is known about how the temperature, chemistry and atomic structure changes within a memristor while it is working.

The team used highly focused x-rays to find the spot where switching of resistance takes place and simultaneously created an image of the region. The data were used to build a model of how a memristor heats up.

From the abstract: We resolved a single conducting channel that is made up of a reduced phase of the as-deposited titanium oxide. Moreover, we observed sufficient Joule heating to induce a crystallization of the oxide surrounding the channel, with a peculiar pattern that finite element simulations correlated with the existence of a hot spot close to the bottom electrode, thus identifying the switching location.

If this behaviour can be harnessed, it might be possible to build circuits that mimic neurology, paving the way, perhaps, for semi-autonomous robots, the researchers claim.

The research is published here in the June issue of IOP Publishing’s Nanotechnology.