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Nano Research 2023, 16(7): 10206-10214 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5633-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 24 April 2023

Stretchable organic electrochemical transistors via three-dimensional porous elastic semiconducting films for artificial synaptic applications

Show Author's Information Yujie Peng1,  Lin Gao1,  Changjian Liu1,  Jinyi Deng1,  Miao Xie2,  Libing Bai2,  Gang Wang3,  Yuhua Cheng2,  Wei Huang2( ),  Junsheng Yu1( )
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Lightweight Structural Composites, Key Laboratory of High Performance fibers & products, Ministry of Education, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
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flexible electronics, neuromorphic computing, artificial synapses, porous films, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs)
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Peng Y, Gao L, Liu C, et al. Stretchable organic electrochemical transistors via three-dimensional porous elastic semiconducting films for artificial synaptic applications. Nano Research, 2023, 16(7): 10206-10214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5633-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Neuromorphic computing targets realizing biomimetic or intelligence systems capable of processing abundant tasks in parallel analogously to our brain, and organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) that rely on the mixed ionic–electronic synergistic couple possess significant similarity to biological systems for implementing synaptic functions. However, the lack of reliable stretchability for synaptic OECTs, where mechanical deformation occurs, leads to consequent degradation of electrical performance. Herein, we demonstrate stretchable synaptic OECTs by adopting a three-dimensional poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS) blend porous elastic film for neuromorphic computing. Such architecture shows the full capability to emulate biological synaptic behaviors. Adjusting the accumulated layer numbers of porous film enables tunable OECT output and hysteresis, resulting in transition in plasticity. Especially, with a trilayer porous film, large-scale conductance and hysteresis are endorsed for efficient mimicking of memory-dependent synapse behavior. Benefitted from the interconnected three-dimensional porous structures, corresponding stretchable synaptic OECTs exhibit excellent mechanical robustness when stretched at a 30% strain, and maintain reliable electrical characteristics after 500 stretching cycles. Furthermore, near-ideal weight updates with near-zero nonlinearities, symmetricity in long-term potentiation (LTP) and depression, and applications for image simulation are validated. This work paves a universal design strategy toward high-performance stretchable neuromorphic computing architecture and could be extended to other flexible/stretchable electronics.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Stretchable organic electrochemical transistors via three-dimensional porous elastic semiconducting films for artificial synaptic applications

Show Author's information Yujie Peng1, Lin Gao1, Changjian Liu1, Jinyi Deng1, Miao Xie2, Libing Bai2, Gang Wang3, Yuhua Cheng2, Wei Huang2( ), Junsheng Yu1( )
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Lightweight Structural Composites, Key Laboratory of High Performance fibers & products, Ministry of Education, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China

Abstract

Neuromorphic computing targets realizing biomimetic or intelligence systems capable of processing abundant tasks in parallel analogously to our brain, and organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) that rely on the mixed ionic–electronic synergistic couple possess significant similarity to biological systems for implementing synaptic functions. However, the lack of reliable stretchability for synaptic OECTs, where mechanical deformation occurs, leads to consequent degradation of electrical performance. Herein, we demonstrate stretchable synaptic OECTs by adopting a three-dimensional poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS) blend porous elastic film for neuromorphic computing. Such architecture shows the full capability to emulate biological synaptic behaviors. Adjusting the accumulated layer numbers of porous film enables tunable OECT output and hysteresis, resulting in transition in plasticity. Especially, with a trilayer porous film, large-scale conductance and hysteresis are endorsed for efficient mimicking of memory-dependent synapse behavior. Benefitted from the interconnected three-dimensional porous structures, corresponding stretchable synaptic OECTs exhibit excellent mechanical robustness when stretched at a 30% strain, and maintain reliable electrical characteristics after 500 stretching cycles. Furthermore, near-ideal weight updates with near-zero nonlinearities, symmetricity in long-term potentiation (LTP) and depression, and applications for image simulation are validated. This work paves a universal design strategy toward high-performance stretchable neuromorphic computing architecture and could be extended to other flexible/stretchable electronics.

Keywords: flexible electronics, neuromorphic computing, artificial synapses, porous films, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs)

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 09 January 2023
Revised: 14 February 2023
Accepted: 01 March 2023
Published: 24 April 2023
Issue date: July 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research & Development Program of China (No. 2022YFE0134800), the National Science Foundation of China (Nos. U21A20492, 62275041, and 62273073), and the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (Nos. 2022YFH0081, 2022YFG0012, 2022YFG0013, and 2022NSFSC0877). This work was also sponsored by the Sichuan Province Key Laboratory of Display Science and Technology, and Qiantang Science & Technology Innovation Center. W. H. also thanks the financial support of the UESTC Excellent Young Scholar Project.

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