Material Memristive Device Circuits with Synaptic Plasticity: Learning and Memory

Abstract

An important endeavor in modern materials science is the synthesis of adaptive assemblies with information processing capabilities similar to those of biological neural systems. Recent developments concern materials functionally similar to the memristor, a notional electrical circuit whose conductivity is dependent on past activity. This feature is analogous to synaptic plasticity: the ability of neurons to modify their synaptic connections as a result of accumulated experience-the basis of learning and the formation of memory. In this paper, we present the first evidence that memristive device-based organic materials show adaptive behavior similar to biological cognitive systems, using learning in the feeding neural network of the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, as a specific biological reference. The synthetic reproduction of synaptic plasticity reported here can create new paradigms for novel computing systems and give impetus to the search for bio-inspired nanoscale molecular architectures capable of learning and decision making.

A bio-inspired memory device based on interfacing Physarum polycephalum with an organic semiconductor

“…Recently, a new type of electronic element, memristive device, has been widely considered as promising candidate for such kinds of circuits. In particular, organic memristive devices 4 were successfully used as synapse analog, 5 allowing the construction of circuits capable of Hebbian type of learning. 6 In contrast with computers, such kind of bio-inspired memory does not imply complete erase of the information.…”

Memristive-biosensors: A new detection method by using nanofabricated memristors

“…These memory-effect devices have been fabricated by using different materials, including amorphous silicon [7], crystalline silicon [8], platinum/TiO 2 [9], platinum/organic-films [5], aniline-derivatized conductive-polymers [10], and graphene embedded in insulating polymers [11]. These devices have been proposed for different applications including digital [9] and analog [12] memories, logic [13] and neuromorphic [14][15][16] circuits. Although nanowires have been proposed several times as gas sensors [17], and as ion-sensitive Field Effect Transistor (FET) for cancer markers [18] or DNA [19] detection, memristive effect has never been reported before as actually applied for biosensing.…”

Neuromorphic microelectronics from devices to hardware systems and applications

“…A ferroelectric realization of the memristor is presented in [137], tageting the emulation of synapses. Organic materials are considered in the implementation of memristors and synapses in [138].…”