Memristor Device Overview

Memristors are one of the emerging technologies that can potentially replace state-of-the-art integrated electronic devices for advanced computing and digital and analog circuit applications including neuromorphic networks. Over the past few years, research and development mostly focused on revolutionizing the metal-oxide materials, which are used as core components of the popular metal-insulator-metal (MIM) memristors owing to their highly recognized resistive switching behavior. This chapter outlines the recent advancements and characteristics of such memristive devices, with a special focus on (i) their established resistive switching mechanisms and (ii) the key challenges associated with their fabrication processes including the impeding criteria of material adaptation for the electrode, capping, and insulator component layers. Potential applications and an outlook into the future development of metal-oxide memristive devices are also outlined.