Memristor Based on the Contact of Two Metal Balls

The memristor was postulated as the fourth passive element in 1971. However, since the implementation of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) memristor in 2008, the role of the memristor as an element of an electrical circuit has not been explored as much as other passive elements, such as the resistor, capacitor, or inductor. This paper shows the characterization in dc and ac of a structure based on two metal balls in contact. The behavior of the device approaches three distinctive features that a memristor must have, as described by Chua. With the obtained results, we can consider that the proposed structure qualifies as a memristor and constitutes a representative of the fourth basic passive element of an electrical circuit.