ELECTROTHERMAL AND PHASE TRANSITION NUMERICAL MODEL FOR MEMRISTOR APPLICATION

Today memristor is widely considered as the most important component in brain-like artificial networks because of its similarity to biological synapse. For this reason, several memristor prototypes such as resistive memristor, polymeric memristor, ferroelectric memristor, and spintronic memristor have been theoretically proposed, subsequently followed by their respective physical realization. Most recently, memristor device using phase-change media has received more interest compared to its seniors due to its fast switching speed, low energy consumption, and long retention time. However, a comprehensively physics-based model that can explain the memristive behaviour of the phase-change memristor remains missing. In order to address this issue, we have proposed a computational pseudo-3D model to simulate the physical performances of the phase-change memristor that involves the electrical, thermal, and phase transition processes. According to this developed model, the ability for phase-change memristor to exhibit a pinched I-V hysteresis loop as well as several advantages over other memristors have been demonstrated.