MemFlash—Floating Gate Transistors as Memristors

The idea of resistive switching devices is originally based on the fact that the application of electric fields changes the atomic structure locally and thus also the electronic structure of the material. This leads globally to a sustained change in the resistance of the material layer, which is generally referred to as resistive switching. In resistive switching devices, these atomic reconfigurations are reversible and allow the state to be maintained for a long time, which is why the devices are referred to as memristive devices (also named Memristor). Memristive devices can be realized as two terminal devices in a metal-insulator-metal structure. In the MemFlash cell, there is no atomic rearrangement in the device and therefore is a purely electronic based switching device. The basic components of the MemFlash cell are floating gate transistors, which are reduced from a three-terminal to a two-terminal device by means of a diode-like wiring scheme and thus exhibit memristive switching behavior. In this book chapter, the MemFlash cell is introduced.