Tunable Synaptic Characteristics of a Ti/TiO2/Si Memory Device for Reservoir Computing

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jul 21;13(28):33244-33252. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c06618. Epub 2021 Jul 12.

Abstract

In this study, we fabricate and characterize a Ti/TiO2/Si device with different dopant concentrations on a silicon surface for neuromorphic systems. We verify the device stack using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The Ti/TiO2/p++Si device exhibits interface-type bipolar resistive switching with long-term memory. The potentiation and depression by the pulses of various amplitudes are demonstrated using gradual resistive switching. Moreover, pattern-recognition accuracy (>85%) is obtained in the neuromorphic system simulation when conductance is used as the weight in the network. Next, we investigate the short-term memory characteristics of the Ti/TiO2/p+Si device. The dynamic range is well-controlled by the pulse amplitude, and the conductance decay depends on the interval between the pulses. Finally, we build a reservoir computing system using the short-term effect of the Ti/TiO2/p+Si device, in which 4 bits (16 states) are differentiated by various pulse streams through the device that can be used for pattern recognition.

Keywords: neuromorphic computing; reservoir computing; resistive switching; short-term memory; synaptic device.