Fundamental Properties of Mem-Elements

This chapter is devoted to discuss some basic properties of memristors, memcapacitors, and meminductors, a.k.a. mem-elements, that are both of theoretic and practical interest. In the first part (Sects. 2.1 and 2.2), the main focus is on features of a memristor as a (−1, −1)-element of the periodic table (cf. Chap. 1), hereinafter also named ideal memristor. Such properties include the passivity and the no energy storage property. It is also shown why a memristor is able to store a continuum of stable states and, as such, can implement a nonvolatile memory. In addition, the chapter illustrates some basic signatures of memristors, as the pinched hysteresis loop displayed in the voltage-current (v, i)-domain in response to a zero-mean periodic input (e.g., a sinusoidal signal).