NANOPARTICLE ORGANIC MATERIAL FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTOR (NOMFET)

- Abishek Manian (D14) - Manish Sadhwani (D14) - Pooja Saraff (D14)

Abstract The progress of artificial intelligence had been slightly hindered by a lack of transistors that work like our brains do until the development of NOMFET. It is an organic-based device that uses pentacene and gold nanoparticles which makes it behave in a manner similar to that of an organic synapse as it transmits a signal between neurons i.e. it can manipulate its reaction to incoming signals depending on events that happened before, or on the nature of the signal it is dealing with at that moment. This can enhance the neuron-based artificial brain design that can now be more compactly constructed. Keywords: NOMFET, Synapse, Short Term Plasticity(STP), Synaptic vesicles, Neurotransmitters, Neuroreceptors, Pentacene. Introduction Evolving nanocomponents are of great interest to provide high density, robustness and adaptability for the progress of new bioinspired systems or circuits. Even though CMOS Neuromorphic system was one of the most penetrating researches to bring the robustness and adaptability in the circuit beyond the conventional Von Neumann architecture in early 1990s, CMOS technology was not able to provide the huge capacity to be quantifiable to biological levels due to the fact that enormous number of transistors are required to produce the dynamic behaviour of biological synapse. Hence, substituting CMOS based synapse technology by nanoscale components to make new neuromorphic circuits is the need of the hour. The NanoparticleOrganic

Memory transistor (NOMFET) is a device made of conjugated molecules and metal nanoparticles which acts as a biological spiking synapse. Facilitating and depressing synaptic behaviors can be depicted by the NOMEFT and it is programmable. It enhances the performance of neural network circuits and also saves space.

What is human synapse? In human nervous system, neurons (nerve cells) are cells that are specialized to transmit signals to individual target cells. In our nervous system, two neurons are connected to each other through a junction called synapse, enabling the transmission of electrical information from one neuron to another and the adaptation of the data as a function of the nature of the incoming signal (plasticity). For example, if very closely packed pulses of incoming signals are received by the synapse, it will transmit a stronger action potential. Conversely, if the pulses are spaced far apart from each other, the action potential will be weaker. This is the primary property of the synapse behaviour called Short-term Plasticity (STP).

Structure of a typical neuron

Functions of synapses An action potential cannot pass through the synaptic cleft between neurons. (The small space between two neurons across which the neurotransmitter acetylcholine diffuses.) Instead the chemicals called neurotransmitters carry the nerve impulses. These chemicals are secreted by the cell that is transmitting the impulse (the pre-synaptic neuron) and is stored in synaptic vesicles at the end of the axon. Axons are the slender cylindrical portion of the neuron that conducts electrical impulses. The cell which receives the nerve impulse (the post-synaptic neuron) in its membrane has chemical-gated ion channels, also called neuroreceptors.

3. 4.

5.

6.

cell membrane, discharging their contents (the neurotransmitter chemicals) by exocytosis. The neurotransmitters diffuse through the synaptic cleft. The neurotransmitter on reaching the post-synaptic neuron binds to the neuroreceptors in its membrane, causing the channels to open. In the example shown these are sodium channels, so sodium ions flow in. This causes a depolarisation of the post-synaptic cell membrane, which may initiate an action potential, if the threshold is reached. The neurotransmitter is broken down by a specific enzyme in the synaptic cleft; for example the enzyme acetylcholinesterase breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The breakdown products are absorbed by the pre-synaptic neuron by endocytosis and used to re-synthesise more neurotransmitter, using energy from the mitochondria. This stops the synapse being permanently on.

Construction of NOMFET

Working of synapses Sequential performance of synapse 1. The pre-synaptic neuron at its end has voltage-gated calcium channels. When an action potential reaches the synapse these channels open, leading to the flow of calcium ions into the cell. 2. These calcium ions cause the synaptic vesicles to combine with the

The NOMFET is composed of three terminals as the conventional MOSFET, Drain (D), Source(S) and Gate (G). The device is fabricated using a bottom-gate electrode configuration. The gold NPs (20 and 5 nm in diameter) were mobilized into the source-drain channel using surface chemistry (self-assembled monolayers) and they were subsequently covered by a thin film (35 nm thick) of pentacene. Working of NOMFET Positive charges called "holes," which are created by missing electrons in the pentacene, transmit the current across this valley of scattered gold. Thus conduction in the device is assured by holes, created in the thin film at the interface with the silicon oxide when a negative gate voltage is applied. At each voltage input, some holes are temporarily trapped by the gold, and this changes the electrical output of the transistor. Depending on the voltages used, NOMFET can produce either weaker or stronger outputs just like human neurons undergoing short-term plasticity. Because of this adaptability, NOMFET is more flexible than traditional transistors. In addition to rather classical transistor behavior, a negative gate voltage also positively charges the Au NPs. This has the effect of diminishing the channel conductivity of the device, because the charged NPs cause a repulsive electrostatic interaction between the holes trapped in the NPs and the ones created in the pentacene. The NOMFET therefore exhibits a short term memory and the charge retention time

in the NPs can be as high as several thousand seconds. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images shows a random distribution of the 20 nm NPs, with the formation of some aggregates. From an image analysis, we deduce an average density of ~ 2-5x1010 NP/cm2. For the 5 nm NPs, we obtain a rather uniform distribution of NPs (no NP aggregation) with a density of ~ 6.5x1011 NP/cm2. NOMFET as SYNAPSE The neuron transmits a small electric pulse along its length, triggering the release of chemicals called neurotransmitters into the synapse. The neurotransmitters traverse the synaptic gap and trigger a response in the neighboring neuron.

The timing of the electrical pulses helps determine how large of a chemical signal gets sent. In some neurons, repeated stimulations yields stronger, or facilitated, firings.

In others, multiple stimulations elicit weaker, or depressed, responses. These adaptations, known as short-term plasticity, happen within milliseconds. Each spike transformed to synapses activates a fraction of chemical neurotransmitters and the amplitude of the transmitted spike is proportional to this fraction. The fraction of neurotransmitters spend to transmit the information is then recovered with a characteristic time rec that is typically in the range of the second. The response of a synapse to a train of pulses with variable frequency can be calculated. The main feature of a biological synapse is to present a dependence of the amplitude of the output spike with the frequency of the input spike. It also depends on the history of the synapse which determines the amount of available neurotransmitter at a given time.

at each successive pulse generating a depressing(facilitating) behavior. NOMFET is a "pseudo two-terminal device". The gate receives the same input voltage (a train of pulse at frequency 1/T, amplitude V, and pulse width W) as the source electrode. The output is the drain current.

The response of the NOMFET to sequences of pulses with different periods, T.

The NPs are alternatively charged during the pulse duration and discharged between pulses . The value of the current at a certain time depends on the full history of the device that determines the amount of charges presents in the NPs. The holes trapped in the NPs play the role of the neurotransmitters and the output signal, ID, is a decreasing function of the number of holes stored in the NPs. At each spike, a certain amount of holes are trapped in the NPs. Between pulses the system relaxes: the

Thus at high(low) frequency, the period of the input signal is lower(larger) than rec and the output signal decreases(increases)

holes escape with a characteristic time d ( d is the NP discharge time constant). However such a synaptic behavior was not observed for the reference pentacene OFET (no NPs).

Response of a reference device (no NPs incorporated in the pentacene layer) to a train of pulse. These results open the way to rate coding utilization of the NOMFET in perceptron and Hopfield networks. NOMFET is envisioned as a building block of neuroelectronics for interfacing neurons or neuronal logic devices made from patterned neuronal cultures with solid-state devices and circuits. Materials and methods The bottom-gate electrode configuration is used to process the NOMFET. The highly doped p-type silicon (10-3 .cm) is covered with a thermally grown 200 nm thick silicon dioxide. Piranha solution (H2SO4 /H2O2, 2/1 v/v) are used to clean the wafer before use. It is exposed to the solution for 15 minutes and then ultraviolet irradiated in

ozone atmosphere (ozonolysis) for 30 minutes. A shadow mask is used for vacuum evaporation of titanium/gold (20/200 nm) to deposit networks of square-shaped gold electrodes (113 m sides, inter electrode gaps of 12 m) on the substrate. Photolithography is used to fabricate networks of electrodes with a smaller gap (1 m). Further, the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of a thiol-ended molecule, prepared by a silanization reaction in gas phase, is used to functionalize the SiO2 (gate dielectric). The oxidized silicon with gold electrodes wafer is placed overnight in the presence of vapors of freshly distilled mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS) in a laboratory glassware at 0.2 Torr. This freshly prepared substrate is immersed in a gold nanoparticles (NPs) solution, a solution of 4-5 nm (in diameter) dodecanethiol functionalized gold nanoparticles (2 % in toluene). This starting solution is diluted 100 times in toluene. Thiol capped Au NPs readily react with thiol-terminated SAM by ligand exchange forming a covalent bond with the surface. Finally, a 35 nm thick pentacene film is evaporated at a rate of 0.1 /s. Applications y Hopfield networks- It is a recurrent artificial neural network, i.e. a model with bidirectional data flow. y Perceptron It follows feed-forward network that propagates data linearly from input to output. y Cybernetics. y Advanced computer-based brain simulations and war robots.

y To achieve the target of creating computer

systems that can efficiently emulate and simulate the brains capabilities like perception, sensation, action, interaction and cognition while maintaing its low power consumption and compact size. Conclusion Efficient computer systems that think like humans could be envisaged courtesy these new transistor which replicates the structures in the human brain. The memory effect due to the encapsulated gold nanoparticles, fixed in the channel of the transistor and coated with pentacene, allows them to mimic the functions of a synapse during the transmission of action potentials between two neurons. This property bolsters the abilities of the electronic component to evolve as a function of the system in which it is placed. It has the potential to increase the performances of neural-network computing circuits. Furthermore, these nanoparticles and molecules used for nanodevice fabrication are nanosize material; bottom-up, low-cost, techniques are used to manipulate (e.g., self-assembly); and they are inclined to work on flexible, plastic, substrates. Previous mock-neural networks required at least seven transistors to copy the short-term plasticity of synapse however NOMFET can imitate same functionality with only single transistor. A researcher has averted that "We will be able to test the theory dating back to the 19th century that memories are written in connectomes and we may also be able to find connectopathies, or miswirings of the brain that cause mental disorders."

Reference 1. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kiteaton/technomix/robocalypse-alertnew-transistor-mimics-synapsefunctions 2. J. Skldberg, C. nnheim, G. Wendin, IEEE Trans. Cicuits and Systems, (2007). 3. http://www.robaid.com/tech/nomfetan-organic-transistor-that-mimics-abrain-synapse.htm 4. http://www.biologymad.com/Nervous System/synapses.htm 5. Functional Model of NanoparticleOrganic Memory Transistor for Use as a Spiking Synapse 6. O. Bichler, W. Zhao, F. Alibart, S. Pleutin, D. Vuillaume and C. Gamrat. 7. F. Alibart, S. Pleutin, D. Gurin, C. Gamrat, and D. Vuillaume, Nature Precedings (2009)