Heat transfer as coupling mechanism in VO2-based neurons

ORAL

Abstract

Neuromorphic computing is a new computation paradigm which imitates the architecture of biological brain. One of the basic tasks is to find materials that mimic the functionality of the two basic components of neural networks: neurons and synapses. Resistive switching offers a unique opportunity to do this. Non-volatile resistive switching has been extensively studied and successfully used to mimic synaptic behavior. On the other hand, finding resistive-switching based neurons has remained an elusive task. Current hardware neurons are based on complex, not-scalable CMOS circuits.
In this work, we show how volatile resistive switching in VO2 can be used to do such task. We use heat as a memory mechanism to implement “leaky integrate and fire”, a basic neural functionality. By keeping VO2 nanodevices at the edge of firing and using heat transfer as coupling mechanism, we show signal self-amplification when voltage spikes are transferred form one neuron to the next. This result is key towards the construction of completely scalable, resistive-switching based neuromorphic hardware.

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Presenters

  • Javier Del Valle Granda

    University of California, San Diego

Authors

  • Javier Del Valle Granda

    University of California, San Diego

  • Yoav Kalcheim

    University of California San Diego, Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California - San Diego, University of California, San Diego, Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California San Diego, Department of Physics, University of California San Diego

  • Pavel Salev

    Royal Holloway, University of London, University of California, San Diego, Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California San Diego, Department of Physics, University of California San Diego

  • Ivan Schuller

    Physics, University of California, San Diego, University of California San Diego, Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California - San Diego, Physics, UC San Diego, University of California, San Diego, Physics and Astronomy, University of California San Diego, Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California San Diego, Department of Physics and Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California, San Diego, Department of Physics, University of California San Diego