Neuro-Inspired Signal Processing in Ferromagnetic Nanofibers

Biomimetics (Basel). 2021 May 26;6(2):32. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics6020032.

Abstract

Computers nowadays have different components for data storage and data processing, making data transfer between these units a bottleneck for computing speed. Therefore, so-called cognitive (or neuromorphic) computing approaches try combining both these tasks, as is done in the human brain, to make computing faster and less energy-consuming. One possible method to prepare new hardware solutions for neuromorphic computing is given by nanofiber networks as they can be prepared by diverse methods, from lithography to electrospinning. Here, we show results of micromagnetic simulations of three coupled semicircle fibers in which domain walls are excited by rotating magnetic fields (inputs), leading to different output signals that can be used for stochastic data processing, mimicking biological synaptic activity and thus being suitable as artificial synapses in artificial neural networks.

Keywords: bending radius; data processing; nanofibers; neuromorphic computing; neuron excitation; spikes.