Versatile Nanoscale Three-Terminal Memristive Switch Enabled by Gating

Abstract

A three-terminal memristor with an ultrasmall footprint of only 0.07 μm2 and critical dimensions of 70 nm × 10 nm × 6 nm is introduced. The device’s feature is the presence of a gate contact, which enables two operation modes: either tuning the set voltage or directly inducing a resistance change. In I-V mode, we demonstrate that by changing the gate voltages between ±1 V one can shift the set voltage by 69%. In pulsing mode, we show that resistance change can be triggered by a gate pulse. Furthermore, we tested the device endurance under a 1 kHz operation. In an experiment with 2.6 million voltage pulses, we found two distinct resistance states. The device response to a pseudorandom bit sequence displays an open eye diagram and a success ratio of 97%. Our results suggest that this device concept is a promising candidate for a variety of applications ranging from Internet-of-Things to neuromorphic computing.