Programming of memristor crossbars by using genetic algorithm

Recently announcement of a physical realization of a fundamental circuit element called memristor by researchers at Hewlett Packard (HP) attracted so much interests and opened a new field in configurable or programmable electronic systems because it has properties of the perfect switch. Combination of this newly found circuit element with nanowire crossbar interconnect technology, creates a powerful platform which is called memristor crossbar. It has been demonstrated that this structure can offer the potential of creating configurable electronic devices which can have applications in signal processing and artificial intelligence. In this paper, we will highlight the rule that Genetic Algorithm (GA) can play in programming these kinds of structures. Without loss of generality, crossbar-based arbitrary waveform generating circuit proposed by Mouttet is considered for demonstrating the capabilities of GA. Simulation results presented in this paper illustrate the effectiveness of GA in programming of memristor crossbars.