HP Labs, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA.
Nat Mater. 2013 Feb;12(2):114-7. doi: 10.1038/nmat3510. Epub 2012 Dec 16.
The Hodgkin-Huxley model for action potential generation in biological axons is central for understanding the computational capability of the nervous system and emulating its functionality. Owing to the historical success of silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors, spike-based computing is primarily confined to software simulations and specialized analogue metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor circuits. However, there is interest in constructing physical systems that emulate biological functionality more directly, with the goal of improving efficiency and scale. The neuristor was proposed as an electronic device with properties similar to the Hodgkin-Huxley axon, but previous implementations were not scalable. Here we demonstrate a neuristor built using two nanoscale Mott memristors, dynamical devices that exhibit transient memory and negative differential resistance arising from an insulating-to-conducting phase transition driven by Joule heating. This neuristor exhibits the important neural functions of all-or-nothing spiking with signal gain and diverse periodic spiking, using materials and structures that are amenable to extremely high-density integration with or without silicon transistors.
霍奇金-赫胥黎模型是生物轴突产生动作电位的基础，对于理解神经系统的计算能力和模拟其功能至关重要。由于硅互补金属氧化物半导体的历史成功，基于尖峰的计算主要局限于软件模拟和专门的模拟金属氧化物半导体场效应晶体管电路。然而，人们有兴趣构建更直接模拟生物功能的物理系统，目标是提高效率和规模。神经电阻器被提议作为一种具有类似于霍奇金-赫胥黎轴突特性的电子设备，但以前的实现方式不可扩展。在这里，我们展示了一种使用两个纳米级莫特忆阻器构建的神经电阻器，这种动态器件表现出瞬态记忆和负微分电阻特性，这是由焦耳加热驱动的绝缘到导电相变引起的。这种神经电阻器表现出全或无尖峰信号增益和多种周期性尖峰的重要神经功能，使用的材料和结构易于与或不与硅晶体管进行极高密度的集成。
