Tunable flexible artificial synapses: a new path toward a wearable electronic system

Abstract

The flexible electronics has been deemed to be a promising approach to the wearable electronic systems. However, the mismatching between the existing flexible deices and the conventional computing paradigm results an impasse in this field. In this work, a new way to access to this goal is proposed by combining flexible devices and the neuromorphic architecture together. To achieve that, a high-performance flexible artificial synapse is created based on a carefully designed and optimized memristive transistor. The device exhibits high-performance which has near-linear non-volatile resistance change under 10,000 identical pulse signals within the 515% dynamic range, and has the energy consumption as low as 45 fJ per pulse. It also displays multiple synaptic plasticity features, which demonstrates its potential for real-time online learning. Besides, the adaptability by virtue of its three-terminal structure specifically contributes its improved uniformity, repeatability, and reduced power consumption. This work offers a very viable solution for the future wearable computing.