A Flexible Tribotronic Artificial Synapse with Bioinspired Neurosensory Behavior

Abstract

As key components of artificial afferent nervous systems, synaptic devices can mimic the physiological synaptic behaviors, which have attracted extensive attentions. Here, a flexible tribotronic artificial synapse (TAS) with bioinspired neurosensory behavior is developed. The triboelectric potential generated by the external contact electrification is used as the ion-gel-gate voltage of the organic thin film transistor, which can tune the carriers transport through the migration/accumulation of ions. The TAS successfully demonstrates a series of synaptic behaviors by external stimuli, such as excitatory postsynaptic current, paired-pulse facilitation, and the hierarchical memory process from sensory memory to short-term memory and long-term memory. Moreover, the synaptic behaviors remained stable under the strain condition with a bending radius of 20 mm, and the TAS still exhibits excellent durability after 1000 bending cycles. Finally, Pavlovian conditioning has been successfully mimicked by applying force and vibration as food and bell, respectively. This work demonstrates a bioinspired flexible artificial synapse that will help to facilitate the development of artificial afferent nervous systems, which is great significance to the practical application of artificial limbs, robotics, and bionics in future.

Stretchable, skin‐conformable neuromorphic system for tactile sensory recognizing and encoding

“…The hysteresis of transfer curves under forward/reverse scans is correlated with their memory behaviors 37 . Typically, with greater hysteresis comes a better memory effect 34 .…”

“…The hysteresis of transfer curves under forward/ reverse scans is correlated with their memory behaviors. 37 Typically, with greater hysteresis comes a better memory effect. 34 Hysteresis is associated with the time constant of the migration of cations from the electrolyte to the active channel.…”

“…Synaptic plasticity, including excitatory/inhibitory postsynaptic currents, paired-pulse facilitation/depression, and short-and long-term potentiation/depression, is emulated to validate the feasibility of OECT synapses. 37 Synaptic depression is related to sensory adaptation, which is regarded as an efficient method for tracking and encoding rapid information updates. 47 In Figure 3A, a typical inhibitory postsynaptic current depression was triggered by 50 mV V g with a 50 ms duration time (t dur ).…”

Tailoring Classical Conditioning Behavior in TiO2 Nanowires: ZnO QDs-Based Optoelectronic Memristors for Neuromorphic Hardware

“…An artificial synapse is an emerging electronic device that can simulate the information transmission behavior between biological neurons and their intricate interconnection structure. It bridges the biological behavior and hardware characteristics, thus enabling hardware neuromorphic computing implementation [ 15 , 16 ]. Currently, extensive research is being conducted to build electronic devices that can mimic essential synaptic functions.…”

Flexibly Photo-Regulated Brain-Inspired Functions in Flexible Neuromorphic Transistors

“…Consequently, it is desirable to devise a three-terminal platform with the real-time signal monitoring and regulation and the smooth memristive responses. To date, the organic transistor memory has spawned numerous studies, − part of which concerns the effective, flexible role of light input in modulating the device properties, including enhancement of charge storage, enlargement of the memory window, and improvement in the response rate. − In charging-based organic transistor devices, the floating gates referring to charge trapping medium mainly include discrete nano-floating gates (e.g., metal nanoparticles, quantum dots, ion-gel membrane, rod–coil molecules, and 2D materials) and continuous polymer electrets. − Besides, rechargeable polymer electrets with low-temperature and large-area solution processability have significant advantages over morphology-dependent nano-floating gates for flexible synaptic transistors.…”