Synchronization of two memristively coupled van der Pol oscillators

The objective of this letter is to convey two essential principles of biological computing-synchronization and memory-in an electronic circuit with two van der Pol (vdP) oscillators coupled via a memristive device. The coupling was mediated by connecting the gate terminals of two programmable unijunction transistors through a resistance-capacitance network comprising an Ag-TiOx-Al memristive device. In the high resistance state the memristance was in the order of M Omega, which leads to two independent self-sustained oscillators characterized by the different frequencies f(1) and f(2) and no phase relation between the oscillations. Depending on the mediated pulse amplitude, the memristive device switched to the low resistance state after a few cycles and a frequency adaptation and phase locking were observed. The experimental results are underlined by theoretically considering a system of two coupled vdP equations. This experiment may pave the way to larger neuromorphic networks in which the coupling parameters (through memristive devices) can vary in time and strength and are able to remember the history of applied electrical potentials. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.