A walk on the frontier of energy electronics with power ultra-wide bandgap oxides and ultra-thin neuromorphic 2D materials

Altres ajuts: the ICN2 is funded also by the CERCA programme / Generalitat de CatalunyaUltra-wide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors and ultra-thin two-dimensional materials (2D) are at the very frontier of the electronics for energy management or energy electronics. A new generation of UWBG semiconductors will open new territories for higher power rated power electronics and deeper ultraviolet optoelectronics. Gallium oxide - GaO(4.5-4.9 eV), has recently emerged as a suitable platform for extending the limits which are set by conventional (-3 eV) WBG e.g. SiC and GaN and transparent conductive oxides (TCO) e.g. In2O3, ZnO, SnO2. Besides, GaO, the first efficient oxide semiconductor for energy electronics, is opening the door to many more semiconductor oxides (indeed, the largest family of UWBGs) to be investigated. Among these new power electronic materials, ZnGa2O4 (-5 eV) enables bipolar energy electronics, based on a spinel chemistry, for the first time. In the lower power rating end, power consumption also is also a main issue for modern computers and supercomputers. With the predicted end of the Moores law, the memory wall and the heat wall, new electronics materials and new computing paradigms are required to balance the big data (information) and energy requirements, just as the human brain does. Atomically thin 2D-materials, and the rich associated material systems (e.g. graphene (metal), MoS2 (semiconductor) and h-BN (insulator)), have also attracted a lot of attention recently for beyond-silicon neuromorphic computing with record ultra-low power consumption. Thus, energy nanoelectronics based on UWBG and 2D materials are simultaneously extending the current frontiers of electronics and addressing the issue of electricity consumption, a central theme in the actions against climate chang

Accelerate & Actualize: Can 2D Materials Bridge the Gap Between Neuromorphic Hardware and the Human Brain?

Two-dimensional (2D) materials present an exciting opportunity for devices and systems beyond the von Neumann computing architecture paradigm due to their diversity of electronic structure, physical properties, and atomically-thin, van der Waals structures that enable ease of integration with conventional electronic materials and silicon-based hardware. All major classes of non-volatile memory (NVM) devices have been demonstrated using 2D materials, including their operation as synaptic devices for applications in neuromorphic computing hardware. Their atomically-thin structure, superior physical properties, i.e., mechanical strength, electrical and thermal conductivity, as well as gate-tunable electronic properties provide performance advantages and novel functionality in NVM devices and systems. However, device performance and variability as compared to incumbent materials and technology remain major concerns for real applications. Ultimately, the progress of 2D materials as a novel class of electronic materials and specifically their application in the area of neuromorphic electronics will depend on their scalable synthesis in thin-film form with desired crystal quality, defect density, and phase purity.Comment: Neuromorphic Computing, 2D Materials, Heterostructures, Emerging Memory Devices, Resistive, Phase-Change, Ferroelectric, Ferromagnetic, Crossbar Array, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Spiking Neural Network

Double-Floating-Gate van der Waals Transistor for High-Precision Synaptic Operations

Department of Materials Science and EngineeringTwo-dimensional materials and their heterostructures have thus far been identified as leading candidates for nanoelectronics owing to the near-atom thickness, superior electrostatic control, and adjustable device architecture. These characteristics are indeed advantageous for neuro-inspired computing hardware where the precise programming is strongly required. However, its successful demonstration fully utilizing all of the given benefits remains to be further developed. Herein, we present van der Waals (vdW) integrated synaptic transistors with multi-stacked floating gates, which are reconfigured upon surface oxidation. When compared with a conventional device structure with a single floating gate, our double-floating-gate (DFG) device exhibits better non-volatile memory performance, including a large memory window (100 V), high on???off current ratio (107), relatively long retention time (5000 s), and satisfactory cyclic endurance (500 cycles), all of which can be attributed to its increased chargestorage capacity and spatial redistribution. This facilitates highly effective modulation of trapped charge density with a large dynamic range. Consequently, the DFG transistor exhibits an improved weight update profile in long-term potentiation/depression synaptic behavior for nearly ideal classification accuracies of up to 96.12% (MNIST) and 81.68% (Fashion-MNIST). Our work adds a powerful option to vdW-bonded device structures for highly efficient neuromorphic computing.ope

Review on data-centric brain-inspired computing paradigms exploiting emerging memory devices

Biologically-inspired neuromorphic computing paradigms are computational platforms that imitate synaptic and neuronal activities in the human brain to process big data flows in an efficient and cognitive manner. In the past decades, neuromorphic computing has been widely investigated in various application fields such as language translation, image recognition, modeling of phase, and speech recognition, especially in neural networks (NNs) by utilizing emerging nanotechnologies; due to their inherent miniaturization with low power cost, they can alleviate the technical barriers of neuromorphic computing by exploiting traditional silicon technology in practical applications. In this work, we review recent advances in the development of brain-inspired computing (BIC) systems with respect to the perspective of a system designer, from the device technology level and circuit level up to the architecture and system levels. In particular, we sort out the NN architecture determined by the data structures centered on big data flows in application scenarios. Finally, the interactions between the system level with the architecture level and circuit/device level are discussed. Consequently, this review can serve the future development and opportunities of the BIC system design

In-memory computing with emerging memory devices: Status and outlook

Supporting data for "In-memory computing with emerging memory devices: status and outlook", submitted to APL Machine Learning

Photonic Memristor for Future Computing: A Perspective

Photonic computing and neuromorphic computing could address the inherent limitations of traditional von Neumann architecture and gradually invalidate Moore’s law. As photonics applications are capable of storing and processing data in an optical manner with unprecedented bandwidth and high speed, twoâ terminal photonic memristors with a remote optical control of resistive switching behaviors at defined wavelengths ensure the benefit of onâ chip integration, low power consumption, multilevel data storage, and a large variation margin, suggesting promising advantages for both photonic and neuromorphic computing. Herein, the development of photonic memristors is reviewed, as well as their application in photonic computing and emulation on optogeneticsâ modulated artificial synapses. Different photoactive materials acting as both photosensing and storage media are discussed in terms of their opticalâ tunable memory behaviors and underlying resistive switching mechanism with consideration of photogating and photovoltaic effects. Moreover, lightâ involved logic operations, systemâ level integration, and lightâ controlled artificial synaptic memristors along with improved learning tasks performance are presented. Furthermore, the challenges in the field are discussed, such as the lack of a comprehensive understanding of microscopic mechanisms under light illumination and a general constraint of inferior nearâ infrared (NIR) sensitivity.The development of photonic memristors and their application in photonic computing and emulation on optogeneticsâ modulated artificial synapses are reviewed. Photoactive materials as photosensing and storage media are discussed, considering their opticalâ tunable memory behavior and resistive switching mechanism including photogating and photovoltaic effect. Lightâ involved logic operations, system level integration, and artificial synaptic memristors along with improved learning tasks performance are presented.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153103/1/adom201900766.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153103/2/adom201900766_am.pd