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Logic gates based on neuristors made from two-dimensional materials

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 399–404 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

A single biological neuron can efficiently perform Boolean operations. Artificial neuromorphic systems, on the other hand, typically require several devices to complete a single operation. Here, we show that neuristors that exploit the intrinsic polarity of two-dimensional materials can perform logic operations in a single device. XNOR gates can be made using ambipolar tungsten diselenide (WSe2), NOR gates using p-type black phosphorus, and OR and AND gates using n-type molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) of different thicknesses. To illustrate the potential of the neuristors, we fabricate logic half-adder and parity-checker circuits using a WSe2 neuristor and a MoS2 neuristor in a two-transistor two-resistor configuration, offering an area saving of 78% compared to circuits based on MoS2 gates in a traditional design. We also propose a binary neural network that is based on a three-dimensional XNOR array, which simulations show should offer an energy efficiency of 622.35 tera-operations per second per watt and a power consumption of 7.31 mW.

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Fig. 1: The neuristors for logic computing.
Fig. 2: Logic performance with diverse polarities.
Fig. 3: Optimized circuits based on a 2T2R structure.
Fig. 4: Neuristor-based BCNN based on a 3D XNOR array.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61925402, 61851402 and 62090032), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (19JC1416600), Shanghai Education Development Foundation and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission Shuguang Program (18SG01), Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDPB22) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB44000000).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Huawei Chen, Xiaoyong Xue.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, School of Microelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Huawei Chen, Xiaoyong Xue, Chunsen Liu, Jinbei Fang, David Wei Zhang & Peng Zhou

  2. School of Computer Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Chunsen Liu

  3. Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Zhen Wang, Jianlu Wang & Weida Hu

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  1. Huawei Chen
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Contributions

P.Z. and W.H. conceived the idea and supervised the experiments. H.C. performed device fabrication and electrical characteristics measurements. J.W., Z.W. and W.H. provided valuable input to the experiments. X.X. and J.F. designed the hardware for the BCNN and performed the simulation. H.C., C.L., W.H. and P.Z. wrote the manuscript, with help from all authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Weida Hu or Peng Zhou.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Electronics thanks Shi-Jun Liang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Chen, H., Xue, X., Liu, C. et al. Logic gates based on neuristors made from two-dimensional materials. Nat Electron 4, 399–404 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00591-z

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