Neural oscillation of single silicon nanowire neuron device with no external bias voltage

Abstract

In this study, we perform simulations to demonstrate neural oscillations in a single silicon nanowire neuron device comprising a gated p–n–p–n diode structure with no external bias lines. The neuron device emulates a biological neuron using interlinked positive and negative feedback loops, enabling neural oscillations with a high firing frequency of ~ 8 MHz and a low energy consumption of ~ 4.5 × 10−15 J. The neuron device provides a high integration density and low energy consumption for neuromorphic hardware. The periodic and aperiodic patterns of the neural oscillations depend on the amplitudes of the analog and digital input signals. Furthermore, the device characteristics, energy band diagram, and leaky integrate-and-fire operation of the neuron device are discussed.