NOMFET is a

nanoparticle A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is a particle of matter 1 to 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 100 nm in only two directions. At ...

organic memory

field-effect transistor The field-effect transistor (FET) is a type of transistor that uses an electric field to control the current through a semiconductor. It comes in two types: junction FET (JFET) and metal-oxide-semiconductor FET (MOSFET). FETs have three termi ...

. The transistor is designed to mimic the feature of the human synapse known as

plasticity Plasticity may refer to: Science * Plasticity (physics), in engineering and physics, the propensity of a solid material to undergo permanent deformation under load * Behavioral plasticity, change in an organism's behavior in response to exposur ...

, or the variation of the speed and strength of the signal going from neuron to neuron. The device uses

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

nano-particles of about 5—20 nm set with

pentacene Pentacene () is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of five linearly-fused benzene () rings. This highly conjugated compound is an organic semiconductor. The compound generates excitons upon absorption of ultra-violet ( UV) or visible ...

to emulate the change in voltages and speed within the signal. This device uses charge trapping/detrapping in an array of gold nanoparticles (NPs) at the SiO₂/pentacene interface to design a SYNAPSTOR (synapse transistor) mimicking the dynamic plasticity of a biological synapse. This device (

memristor A memristor (; a portmanteau of ''memory resistor'') is a non-linear two-terminal electrical component relating electric charge and magnetic flux linkage. It was described and named in 1971 by Leon Chua, completing a theoretical quartet of ...

-like) mimics short-term plasticity (STP) and temporal correlation plasticity (STDP, spike-timing dependent plasticity), two "functions" at the basis of learning processes. A compact model was developed, and these organic synapstors were used to demonstrate an associative memory, which can be trained to present a pavlovian response. A recent report showed that these organic synapse-transistors (synapstor) are working at 1 volt and with a plasticity typical response time in the range 100-200 ms. The device also works in contact with an electrolyte (EGOS : electrolyte gated organic synapstor) and can be interfaced with biologic neurons. The recent creation of this novel transistor gives prospects to better recreation of certain types of human cognitive processes, such as

recognition Recognition may refer to: Machine learning *Pattern recognition, a branch of machine learning which encompasses the meanings below Biometric * Recognition of human individuals, or biometrics, used as a form of identification and access control ...

and

image processing An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a pr ...

.New transistors mimic human brain's synapses
When the NOMFET is used in a neuromorphic circuit it is able to replicate the functionality of plasticity that previously required groups of several transistors to emulate and thus continue to decrease the size of the processor that would be attempting to utilize the computational advantages of a pseudo-synaptic operation. (See

Moore's Law Moore's law is the observation that the Transistor count, number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and Forecasting, projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of ...

)

References

{{Reflist Transistor types Computer storage devices Molecular electronics Organic electronics

See also

References