Memristor based sensor

Abstract

A sensor comprises a plurality of sensor elements arranged in an array. Each sensor element is memristive and has an electrical resistance characteristic related to exposure to a species to be sensed.The sensor elements are arranged to be connectable such that at least one sensor element is connected in parallel with at least one other sensor element. By using appropriate connections, the array of sensor elements can be read.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to sensors comprising an array of memristive sensor elements, eg for sensing chemical species. Background technique [0002] It has been proposed to use a single memristor (short for "memory-resistor") as a gas sensor. Measurement errors can be reduced statistically by taking multiple measurements from the same sensor or from different independent sensors. However, the reliability of the measurements cannot be determined by taking multiple measurements from a single sensor. Redundant sample measurements from multiple sensors ensure reliability. [0003] Arrays of memristors have been proposed as digital memory architectures. However, reading the resistance of individual memristive elements in such an array is problematic when acting as a sensor because memristive elements are typically bidirectional conductors (unlike conventional semiconductor memory structures). This conductive property means that there are "sneak pa...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, reading the resistance of individual memristor elements in such an array is problematic when acting as a sensor because memristor elements are typically bidirectional conductors (unlike conventional semiconductor memory structures)

This conductive property means that there are "sneak paths" (i.e., unintended conductive paths through the array), which can lead to false sensing of the resistance of selected memristive elements in the array

When the device is used as a memory, it is only necessary to distinguish between the two binary states of the memristor, which can have vastly different resistance values ​​to represent 1s and 0s; therefore, the existence of sneak paths is less of a problem (although it may is still a problem, and may lead to an eventual downgrade of the stored information)

However, for chemical sensing measurements, one may need to sense a continuum of resistance values, and thus, the sensing margin is severely degraded by the presence of sneak paths

The sneak path also limits the maximum array size, since the read margin degrades severely as the array size increases when the sneak path is present

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