Memristive Devices: from Materials Science to Neuromorphic Hardware

Abstract: Developing electronics beyond Moore's Law requires a revolutionary vision in new materials, novel devices, disruptive technologies, and alternative computer architecture. A memristor (resistance switch) is an emerging device that uses resistance states to represent digital or analog information. Built into large-scale crossbar arrays, they perform efficient multiply-accumulate operations with massive parallelism by directly using physical laws. With their working mechanisms based on ion migration, the switching dynamics of memristive devices resemble those of synapses and neurons, making them promising building blocks for neuromorphic hardware. In this talk, I will first showcase a non-volatile memristor, emphasizing how fundamental materials science principles are employed in designing and fabricating the device that meets the requirements of analog in-memory computing in artificial neural networks. I will then discuss the challenges and solutions in integrating these devices into large-scale 2D and 3D arrays and a pathway from disruptive fabrication to volume manufacturing of memristor-based AI accelerators. Finally, I will introduce a volatile diffusive memristor, its working principle revealed by the in-situ materials characterization, and its application in neuromorphic engineering.

Bio: Dr. Xia is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMass Amherst and head of the Nanodevices and Integrated Systems Lab (http://nano.ecs.umass.edu). Before joining UMass, he spent three years at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2007 from Princeton University. Dr. Xia's research interests include beyond-CMOS devices based on novel materials, device physics, enabling fabrication technologies, and integrated systems with applications in machine intelligence, reconfigurable RF systems, and hardware security. Dr. Xia received a DARPA Young Faculty Award, an NSF CAREER award, the Barbara H. and Joseph I. Goldstein Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, and an Outstanding Senior Faculty Award from UMass Amherst. He is a 'Highly Cited Researcher' according to Clarivate and an IEEE Fellow "for contributions to resistive memory arrays and devices for in-memory computing." He has served on the technical committees of several premier conferences, such as IEDM, ISCAS, and EIPBN (2023 Conference Chair).

All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:00 noon-1:00 p.m. in the Bowen Hall Auditorium Room 222. A light lunch is provided at 11:30 a.m. in the Bowen Hall Atrium immediately prior to the seminar.