Achieving Reliable and Ultrafast Memristors via Artificial Filaments in Silk Fibroin

Abstract

The practical implementation of memristors in neuromorphic computing and biomimetic sensing suffers from unexpected temporal and spatial variations due to the stochastic formation and rupture of conductive filaments (CFs). Here, the biocompatible silk fibroin (SF) is patterned with an on‐demand nanocone array by using thermal scanning probe lithography (t‐SPL) to guide and confine the growth of CFs in the silver/SF/gold (Ag/SF/Au) memristor. Benefiting from the high fabrication controllability, cycle‐to‐cycle (temporal) standard deviation of the set voltage for the structured memristor is significantly reduced by ≈95.5% (from 1.535 to 0.0686 V) and the device‐to‐device (spatial) standard deviation is also reduced to 0.0648 V. Besides, the statistical relationship between the structural nanocone design and the resultant performance is confirmed, optimizing at the small operation voltage (≈0.5 V) and current (100 nA), ultrafast switching speed (sub‐100 ns), large on/off ratio (104), and the smallest switching slope (SS < 0.01 mV dec−1). Finally, the short‐term plasticity and leaky integrated‐and‐fire behavior are emulated, and a reliable thermal nociceptor system is demonstrated for practical neuromorphic applications.

Silk-based intelligent fibers and textiles: structures, properties, and applications

“…Silk is composed of silk gelatin proteins, which have the greatest properties and performance, and silk gel proteins, which are hydrophilic and need to be removed before use. After degumming treatment to remove sericin, the resulting solution can be used to prepare regenerated silk protein fibers by various processing methods (electrostatic spinning, 22,23 wet spinning, 24,25 dry spinning, 19 direct writing 26 and microfluidic spinning). 27,28 However, the mechanical strength of regenerated silk fibers is lower than that of the original silk, which can be optimized by optimizing the preparation process, improving the spinning conditions, and introducing cross-linking 29 agents to enhance intermolecular binding.…”