Modeling and Simulation of Vanadium Dioxide Relaxation Oscillators

This paper deals with modeling and simulation of a new family of two-terminal devices fabricated with vanadium dioxide material. Such devices allow realization of very compact relaxation nano-oscillators that can be connected electronically to form arrays of coupled oscillators. Challenging applications of oscillator arrays include the realization of multiphase signal generators and massively parallel brain-inspired neurocomputing. In the paper, a circuit-level model of the vanadium dioxide device is provided which enables extensive electrical simulations of oscillator systems built on the device. The proposed model is exploited to explain the dynamics of vanadium dioxide relaxation oscillators as well as to accomplish a robust parameter design. Applications to the realization of voltage-controlled oscillators and of multiphase oscillator arrays are illustrated.