Bio-Inspired Neurons Based on Novel Leaky-FeFET with Ultra-Low Hardware Cost and Advanced Functionality for All-Ferroelectric Neural Network

• DOI: 10.23919/vlsit.2019.8776495
• Publication Date: 2019-07-25T20:25:02Z
• Authors: C. Chen; M. Yang; S. Liu; T. Liu; K. Zhu; Y. Zhao; H. Wang; Q. Huang; R. Huang
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences

For the brain-inspired neuromorphic computing, various emerging memory devices, including FeFET, have been applied to develop the artificial synapses, while the artificial neurons are still mostly CMOS-implemented and suffer from high-hardware-cost issue, especially when expanding advanced functions. In this work, a novel leaky-FeFET (L-FeFET) based on partially crystallized $\text{Hf}_{05}\text{z}_{\text{r}05}\text{O}_{2}$ layer is designed to mimic biological neurons. For the first time, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a capacitor-less L-FeFET neuron for basic leaky-integrate-and-fire function with ultra-low hardware cost of only one transistor and one resistor. Furthermore, a new hybrid L-FeFET-CMOS neuron is implemented to expand advanced spike-frequency adaption with almost half of hardware cost compared with CMOS neuron. This work provides a highly-integrated and inherently-low-energy implementation for neuron and the possibility for all-ferroelectric neural networks.