Artificial Synapses Based on Ferroelectric Schottky Barrier Field-Effect Transistors for Neuromorphic Applications

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 13, pp. 32005–32012

Abstract

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Artificial synapses based on ferroelectric Schottky barrier field-effect transistors (FE-SBFETs) are experimentally demonstrated. The FE-SBFETs employ single-crystalline NiSi 2 contacts with an atomically flat interface to Si and Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 ferroelectric layers on silicon-on-insulator substrates. The ferroelectric polarization switching dynamics gradually modulate the NiSi 2 /Si Schottky barriers and the potential of the channel, thus programming the device conductance with input voltage pulses. The short-term synaptic plasticity is characterized in terms of excitatory/inhibitory post-synaptic current (EPSC) and paired-pulse facilitation/depression. The EPSC amplitude shows a linear response to the amplitude of the pre-synaptic spike. Very low energy/spike consumption as small as ∼2 fJ is achieved, demonstrating high energy efficiency. Long-term potentiation/depression results show very high endurance and very small cycle-to-cycle variations (∼1%) after 10 5 pulse measurements. Furthermore, spike-timing-dependent plasticity is also emulated using the gate voltage pulse as the pre-synaptic spike and the drain voltage pulse as the post-synaptic spikes. These findings indicate that FE-SBFET synapses have high potential for future neuromorphic computing applications.

Authors 7

1. Fengben Xi Aachen Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9) and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany

2. Yi Han Aachen Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

   Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9) and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany

3. Mingshan Liu

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9) and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany

4. Jin Hee Bae

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9) and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany

5. Andreas T. Tiedemann

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9) and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany

6. Detlev Grützmacher

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9) and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany

7. Qing‐Tai Zhao corresponding

   Forschungszentrum Jülich · Jülich Aachen Research Alliance

   Affiliation as printed

   Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI 9) and JARA-Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany