Synapses are essential to the transmission of nervous signals. Synaptic plasticity allows changes in synaptic strength that make a brain capable of learning from experience. During development of neuromorphic electronics, great efforts have been made to design and fabricate electronic devices that emulate synapses. Three‐terminal artificial synapses have the merits of concurrently transmitting signals and learning. Inorganic and organic electronic synapses have mimicked plasticity and learning. Optoelectronic synapses and photonic synapses have the prospective benefits of low electrical energy loss, high bandwidth, and mechanical robustness. These artificial synapses provide new opportunities for the development of neuromorphic systems that can use parallel processing to manipulate datasets in real time. Synaptic devices have also been used to build artificial sensory systems. Here, recent progress in the development and application of three‐terminal artificial synapses and artificial sensory systems is reviewed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.