MIETMAN · Modeling of Ionic and Electronic Transport in 2D Materials Toward Memristive Applications in Neuromorphic Computing

Modeling of Ionic and Electronic Transport in 2D Materials Toward Memristive Applications in Neuromorphic Computing

The digital transformation of the last half a century has revolutionized human societies, enabling unthinkable information and communication services. However, the stringent computational requirements that these technologies demand, results in a (long-term) unaffordable energy consumption and environmental stress. This energy voracity is rooted in the von Neumann computational architecture, which physically separates the information storage and processing modules in present electronic systems. To confront this challenging scenario, the last decades have witnessed a strong scientific push toward the exploration of neuromorphic computing architectures taking inspiration from the power-efficiency of the biological brain. The memristor, with added functionality provided by two-dimensional materials (2DMs), has shown the capability of achieving the innate high density of the biological networks, with efficient hardware realization of both neurons and synapses. Moreover, memristors-based neuromorphic systems are not restricted to solve the energy consumption of the existing technology, but will also enable much-advanced functionality through the realization of artificial intelligent (AI) systems. This field, although promising, is in its infancy and needs strong theoretical support to guide the experimental work in order to push forward the state of the art. In this respect, MIETMAN sought the development of a multi-scale modelling and simulation framework for 2DM-based memristors, combined with the fabrication of working prototypes for their application in brain-inspired computation. The overall aim of the proposal was to demonstrate the feasibility of the 2DMs to implement novel neuromorphic applications able to lead the forthcoming revolution in the semiconductor industry. The project work was carried out at two institutions: i) the University of Granada (UGR), Granada Spain, where a comprehensive computational study of the main properties of these materials was realized; and ii) the Gesellschaft fur Angewandte Mikro- und Optoelektronik (AMO GmbH), Aachen, Germany, where the 2DMs-based memristive devices were fabricated and characterized. At the end of the project we were able to achieve most of the originally proposed objectives. We studied the 2DM-based memristors from different abstraction levels generating and forwarding critical information to build a bottom-up understanding of the device. Along with the fabricated prototypes, we were able to show the feasibility of 2DMs in realizing important learning features of the biological synapse as well as emulating the neurons behaviour. The knowledge pool generated is currently being carried forward to advance the 2DM-based memristive systems toward a common goal of reducing energy consumption in computing.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз