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Flexible memristors as electronic synapses for neuro-inspired computation based on scotch tape-exfoliated mica substrates

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Abstract

Flexible memristor devices based on plastic substrates have attracted considerable attention due to their applications in wearable computers and integrated circuits. However, most plastic-substrate memristors cannot function or be grown in high-temperature environments. In this study, scotch-tape-exfoliated mica was used as the flexible memristor substrate in order to resolve these high-temperature issues. Our TiN/ZHO/IGZO memristor, which was constructed using a thin (10 μm) mica substrate, has superior flexibility and thermostability. After bending it 103 times, the device continues to exhibit exceptional electrical characteristics. It can also be implemented for transitions between high and low resistance states, even in temperatures of up to 300 °C. More importantly, the biological synaptic characteristics of paired-pulse facilitation/depression (PPF/PPD) and spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) were observed through applying different pulse measurement modes. This work demonstrates that flexible memristor devices on mica substrates may potentially allow for the realization of high-temperature memristor applications for biologically-inspired computing systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61306098, 61674050 and 61422407), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (Nos. E2012201088 and E2013201176), the Science Research Program of University in Hebei Province (No. ZH2012019), Top-notch Youth Project of University in Hebei Province (No. BJ2014008), the project of enhancement comprehensive strength of the Midwest universities of Hebei University, the Outstanding Youth Project of Hebei Province (No. F2016201220), the outstanding Youth Cultivation Project of Hebei University (No. 2015JQY01), Project of science and technology activities for overseas researcher (No. CL201602), Post-graduate’s Innovation Fund Project of Hebei University (No. X201714), and Baoding Nanyang Research Institute - New Material Technology Platform (17H03).

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  1. Xiaobing Yan and Zhenyu Zhou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Electron and Information Engineering, Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering of Hebei Province, Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Materials of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China

    Xiaobing Yan, Zhenyu Zhou, Jianhui Zhao & Hong Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices & Integrated Technology, Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Qi Liu

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Xiaobing Yan & Guoliang Yuan

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    Jingsheng Chen

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  1. Xiaobing Yan
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Correspondence to Xiaobing Yan or Qi Liu.

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Flexible memristors as electronic synapses for neuro-inspired computation based on scotch tape-exfoliated mica substrates

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Yan, X., Zhou, Z., Zhao, J. et al. Flexible memristors as electronic synapses for neuro-inspired computation based on scotch tape-exfoliated mica substrates. Nano Res. 11, 1183–1192 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1781-2

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