Cai, Yimao
Professor
Research Interests: Novel memory technology, neuromorphic computing
Office Phone: 86-10-6276 9609
Email: caiyimao@pku.edu.cn
Cai, Yimao received Ph.D. degree from Peking University in 2006. After that he joined R&D center, Samsung Electronics, Korea as a senior engineer. During in Samsung, he contributed to the development of 65 nm/45 nm NOR flash chips and their characterization. In 2009, he joined Institute of Microelectronics, Peking University, as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Professor in 2016. His current research interests include Novel Memory technology, Memristive devices and Neuromorphic computing
Dr. Cai has published more than 50 research papers, and most of them are published in top-tier journals, such as Nanoscale, IEEE-TED, IEEE-EDL, and APL.
Dr. Cai has more than ten research projects including NSFC, 863 project, etc. His research achievements are summarized as follows:
1) RRAM technology: TMO RRAM is considered as one of the most promising next-generation memories with advantages of low operation voltage, simple structure and high-density potential. However, material, mechanism and architecture are still the main obstacles hindering RRAM’s real application. Prof. Cai has performed studies on TMO-based RRAM materials, device structure, array architecture and its integration technology. He has also studied on the characteristics and noise analysis of RRAM, showing insightful understandings on the mechanism of TMO RRAM. He has developed 1Mbit~64Mbit RRAM test chips, which are successfully demonstrated in SSD application.
2) Flexible electronic devices: As essential components required in various wearable devices, flexible nonvolatile memories are more and more desirable in wearable biomedical devices, but the disadvantages such as inflexibility, high operating voltage and physical scaling limit of traditional flash memory make it difficult to meet the requirements of future wearable biomedical systems. Prof. Cai developed a flexible parylene-based organic RRAM device suitable for wearable biomedical application. The proposed flexible device is fabricated through standard CMOS process, exhibiting the advantages of high storage window, superior retention ability, ultra-low power capability and disturb immunity.
3) Neuromorphic computing: The study of brain-like computing system which have the advantages of power efficient, high-parallelism, error free and intelligence is the most important thing. The high performance of our brain is benefit of the large number of neurons and synapses that form a highly interconnected exclusive neural network and it’s special information transmission and processing. Prof. Cai developed a series of novel memristor devices, and proposed a memristor-based multi-terminal electronic artificial synapse that allows the practical implementation of significant non-associative based on a single electronic device. The experience- induced modification behavior, both habituation and sensitization, was successfully achieved through the proposed device.
