Planar p–n Junction Engineering toward Reconfigurable Organic Synaptic Transistors for High‐Accuracy Neuromorphic Recognition

Synaptic transistors are pivotal for hardware-level neuromorphic computing. However, the lack of switching behavior diversity has limited the implementation of advanced computing tasks, which are constrained by traditional interfacial or uncontrollable materials engineering. Here, a universal planar p-n junction structure is devised, with rational alignment of energy levels between crosslinkable p-type poly(indacenodithiophene-alt-benzothiadizole)-based conjugated polymer with hydroxyl groups at the ends of its side chains (OH-IDTBT-10%) and different n-type conjugated polymers, fabricated through efficient solution processing. This structure enables reconfigurable switching of p-type and n-type carrier transport by modifying the transistor architecture, along with significant non-volatile memory and synaptic plasticity. By strategically adjusting crosslinkers, a large memory window up to 48.5 V is achieved, sustained performance over 500 cycles, and a diverse array of synaptic behaviors modulated by electrical pulses. The underlying mechanism involves quantum well-like structures and discrete physical charge traps at the bilayer interface. The versatility of the strategy is proven across different n-type polymer systems. An artificial neural network (ANN) constructed by these devices affords a remarkably high facial recognition accuracy of 97.58% using the Yale Face Database with minimized training epochs of 200. This design provides an opportunity for high performance hardware with diverse synaptic behaviors in advanced neuromorphic computing.

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Journal
Small
Published
2025-05-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202502740
Primary Topic
Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Planar p–n Junction Engineering toward Reconfigurable Organic Synaptic Transistors for High‐Accuracy Neuromorphic Recognition

Weijia Dong, Xuwen Zhang, Chenhui Xu, Yanhou Geng et al.
Small
Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
article

Planar p–n Junction Engineering toward Reconfigurable Organic Synaptic Transistors for High‐Accuracy Neuromorphic Recognition

Weijia Dong, Xuwen Zhang, Chenhui Xu, Yanhou Geng, Minghao Qi, Bin Zhao, Chuanbin An, Yang Han, Shiyu Wang, Yuqian Liu
article en

Abstract

Synaptic transistors are pivotal for hardware-level neuromorphic computing. However, the lack of switching behavior diversity has limited the implementation of advanced computing tasks, which are constrained by traditional interfacial or uncontrollable materials engineering. Here, a universal planar p-n junction structure is devised, with rational alignment of energy levels between crosslinkable p-type poly(indacenodithiophene-alt-benzothiadizole)-based conjugated polymer with hydroxyl groups at the ends of its side chains (OH-IDTBT-10%) and different n-type conjugated polymers, fabricated through efficient solution processing. This structure enables reconfigurable switching of p-type and n-type carrier transport by modifying the transistor architecture, along with significant non-volatile memory and synaptic plasticity. By strategically adjusting crosslinkers, a large memory window up to 48.5 V is achieved, sustained performance over 500 cycles, and a diverse array of synaptic behaviors modulated by electrical pulses. The underlying mechanism involves quantum well-like structures and discrete physical charge traps at the bilayer interface. The versatility of the strategy is proven across different n-type polymer systems. An artificial neural network (ANN) constructed by these devices affords a remarkably high facial recognition accuracy of 97.58% using the Yale Face Database with minimized training epochs of 200. This design provides an opportunity for high performance hardware with diverse synaptic behaviors in advanced neuromorphic computing.

SmallVol. 21(29)
Tianjin University (CN), National University of Singapore (SG), Fudan University (CN), Beijing Chemical Industry Research Institute (China) (CN), Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering Tianjin (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 91%
Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
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