Memristive crossbar memory lifetime evaluation and reconfiguration strategies

Abstract

Among the emerging technologies and devices for highly scalable and low power memory architectures, memristors are considered as one of the most favorable alternatives for next generation memory technologies. They are attracting great attention recently, due to their many appealing characteristics such as non-volatility and compatibility with CMOS fabrication process. But beside all memristor advantages, their drawbacks including manufacturing process variability and limited read/write endurance, could risk their future utilization. This paper will evaluate the impact of reliability concerns in lifetime of memristive crossbars and will present the design basis of two proposed reconfiguration approaches in memristive crossbar- based memories, in order to extend the system lifetime by utilizing available resources in an intense way and without need of failure recovery. It is observed that the adaptive reconfiguring approach can improve the crossbar reliability and extend its lifetime up to 65% in comparison with non-adaptive reconfiguration strategy.