Building memristive neurons and synapses

Essential needs of individual memristive devices for neuromorphic circuits are defined and discussed. In more detail, memristive devices based on ionic and purely electronic mechanism are explored. The ionic devices consist of the layer sequence metal/isolator/metal and represent the currently most popular devices. The electronic device is a MemFlash-cell. The MemFlash-cell is based on a conventional floating gate transistor but by using a particular wiring scheme a two-terminal device exhibiting a memristive I–V curve is obtained. The electronic characteristics of both types of devices are experimentally explored within the framework of their capability to emulate synaptic plasticity. Advantages and disadvantages for neuromorphic applications are discussed.