A tunable leaky integrate-and-fire neuron based on one neuromorphic transistor and one memristor

Abstract

Artificial leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neurons have attracted significant attention for building brain-like computing and neuromorphic systems. However, previous artificial LIF neurons have primarily focused on implementing integrate-and-fire function, and the function of dendritic modulation has rarely been reported. In this Letter, a tunable artificial LIF neuron based on an IGZO electric-double-layer (EDL) transistor and a TaOx memristor is fabricated, and dendritic modulation is investigated. An IGZO-based EDL transistor with a modulatory terminal is used to realize dendritic nonlinear integration and filtering capability, as well as the tunable neural excitability. An Ag/TaOx/ITO threshold switching memristor mimics the all-or-nothing spiking and threshold switching of the soma. By incorporating these two components in a customized way, such artificial LIF neuron can emulate the key function of biological neuron with rich computational flexibility. Our artificial LIF neurons with rich nonlinear dynamics have great potential to perform more complex tasks in future spiking neuromorphic systems.