Examination of polarity-dependent charging and discharging of capacitor circuits containing carbon and tungsten based memristors

Memristor (Memory Resistor) is a nonlinear circuit element. In 1971, it was proposed by Dr. Leon Chua. Dr. Chua claimed that if there were a relation between flux and charge, it would define the element, called memristor by him, which has not been mentioned in the literature until then. In 2008, a memristive system behaving as a memristor was found in an HP Laboratory. With this discovery, the memristor has become a popular research subject. It is very important to examine the behavior of memristor, which is a new nonlinear circuit element, with other circuit elements. There are few studies in the literature in which memristor and capacitor (M-C) are analyzed together. In this thesis, polarity dependent charge and discharge of a capacitor and memristor circuit, namely M-C series circuit, is investigated both analytically and experimentally. This study is also important since it is the first experimental study of an M-C charge and discharge circuit in the literature. Carbon and Tungsten based memristors produced by Knowm company are used in the circuits. Analysis and experiments are done using a series protection resistor as specified in the catalog of the memristors. It has been examined whether the analytical solutions of these M-C circuits with and without a source exist by using the Biolek memristor model. Then, the circuit was set up in the laboratory and experimental results are obtained. Keywords: Memristor, Carbon-based Memristor, Tungsten-based Memristor, Discharge Circuit, Circuit Theory