Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to overcome the defects of the prior art and provide an artificial neurite based on OECT and a preparation method thereof, wherein the artificial neurite is prepared by adopting a vertical structure device, so that the ion and electron mobility and migration paths are controllable, and further, an electric signal response with biological neurite response characteristics is generated.
In order to achieve the aim, the invention provides an artificial nerve synapse based on OECT, which is characterized by comprising a substrate, a source electrode, a semiconductor layer, a drain electrode, an encapsulation layer, an electrolyte layer and a grid electrode;
The semiconductor device comprises a substrate, a rectangular strip-shaped source electrode, a square semiconductor layer, a grid electrode, a packaging layer, an electrolyte layer, a grid electrode and a grid electrode, wherein the rectangular strip-shaped source electrode is arranged at the center of the substrate, the square semiconductor layer is arranged at the center of the source electrode, the width of the semiconductor layer is larger than that of the source electrode;
And a control signal is applied to the grid electrode, and ions in the electrolyte layer can permeate into or separate out of the semiconductor layer under the action of source-drain voltage between the drain electrode and the source electrode, so that an electric signal simulating synapses is generated.
The invention aims at realizing the following steps:
The invention discloses an OECT-based artificial neurite and a preparation method thereof, which mainly comprise a substrate, a source electrode, a semiconductor layer, a drain electrode, a packaging layer, an electrolyte layer and a grid electrode, wherein in the preparation process, the substrate is firstly prepared in a vertical structure mode, the substrate is cleaned and dried, then the source electrode is sequentially prepared on the substrate, the semiconductor layer is prepared on the source electrode, the drain electrode is prepared on the semiconductor layer, the packaging layer is prepared on the substrate, the semiconductor layer between the source electrode and the drain electrode is exposed, the electrolyte layer is prepared above the semiconductor layer, and finally the grid electrode connected with the dielectric layer is prepared.
Meanwhile, the OECT-based artificial neurite and the preparation method thereof have the following beneficial effects:
(1) The control means comprises source electrode and drain electrode width, semiconductor layer thickness and compound semiconductor material mixing proportion;
(2) Under the action of gate voltage, ions in the electrolyte dielectric layer are doped or separated out from the semiconductor through the edge of the drain electrode, so that the concentration of carriers in the semiconductor is controlled, and the conductivity of the semiconductor is changed;
(3) This process mimics the biological phenomenon of neurotransmitter release by the nerve synapse causing a change in membrane potential, such that the electrical signal response of the device has the fundamental characteristics of a biological nerve synapse response;
(4) The vertical electromechanical chemistry transistor artificial synapse provided by the invention has the advantages of excellent controllability, synaptic plasticity, low power consumption, microminiaturization, good biocompatibility and the like, and the application of the vertical electromechanical chemistry transistor artificial synapse comprises brain-like calculation, brain-computer/man-machine interface, biological function repair/enhancement and the like;
(5) The semiconductor/cross-linking agent ratio of the device channel layer is adjustable, and devices prepared by using semiconductor solutions with different ratios have different ion permeability, so that the devices have different electrical characteristics;
(6) The device can change the shape of the opening of the packaging layer to control the ion doping/exuding efficiency, as shown in effect (2), the ions are doped into and out of the semiconductor channel through the edges of the electrode (or the channel), the size and the mode of the opening can be changed, for example, when the complete channel layer is exposed and the grid voltage which enables the device to be conducted is applied, the ions permeate into the channel from the periphery of the rectangular film, after the voltage is removed, the ions permeate/exude from the periphery of the rectangular film, for example, only one side of the left or right rectangular strip of the drain is exposed, so that the ion moving distance is controlled, the characteristics of the artificial nerve synapse are changed, for example, the length of the exposed rectangular strip is changed, the size of the channel for doping or precipitating the ions is changed, the quantity of the ions entering the channel in unit time is effectively regulated, and the characteristics of the artificial nerve synapse are further regulated.
Detailed Description
The following description of the embodiments of the invention is presented in conjunction with the accompanying drawings to provide a better understanding of the invention to those skilled in the art. It is to be expressly noted that in the description below, detailed descriptions of known functions and designs are omitted here as perhaps obscuring the present invention.
Examples
Fig. 1 is a hierarchical structure diagram of an artificial nerve synapse based on OECT according to the present invention.
In this embodiment, an artificial nerve synapse based on OECT, as shown in FIG. 1 (a), comprises a substrate 1, a source electrode 2, a semiconductor layer 3, a drain electrode 4, an encapsulation layer 5, an electrolyte layer 6 and a gate electrode 7;
The method comprises the steps of (a) arranging a rectangular strip-shaped source electrode 2 at the center of a substrate 1 shown in fig. 1 (b), arranging a square semiconductor layer 3 at the center of the source electrode 2, wherein the length of the source electrode 2 is aligned with the width of the substrate 1, arranging a square semiconductor layer 3 at the center of the source electrode 2, wherein the width of the semiconductor layer 3 is larger than the width of the source electrode 2, arranging a rectangular strip-shaped drain electrode 4 at the center of the semiconductor layer 3, wherein the length of the drain electrode 4 is aligned with the width of the substrate 1, wherein the width of the drain electrode 4 is smaller than the width of the semiconductor layer 3, arranging a packaging layer 5 at the center of the drain electrode 3, and opening a square hole at the center of the packaging layer 5, wherein the opening is formed so as to expose left and right square strips when seen from a top view, arranging a grid electrode 7 above the packaging layer 6, wherein the size of the electrolyte layer 6 is formed so as to cover the square hole of the packaging layer 5 completely, and the grid 7 is arranged above the electrolyte layer 6, as shown in fig. 1 (e);
The gate electrode 7 may be an electrode sheet directly above the electrolyte layer 6 as in fig. 8 (a), and the gate electrode 7 may be located on the side of the semiconductor layer 3 in the same plane as the source electrode 2 as in fig. 8 (b);
The control signal is applied to the grid electrode 7, ions in the electrolyte layer 6 can permeate into or separate out of the semiconductor layer 3 under the action of source-drain voltage between the drain electrode 4 and the source electrode 2, so that an electric signal simulating synapses is generated, the characteristics of the signal can be influenced by various factors including the electrode width, the width of the source electrode and the drain electrode, the thickness of the semiconductor layer and the mixing proportion of composite semiconductor materials can be controlled according to actual conditions, and therefore the migration time of electrons and ions can be effectively regulated, and the plasticity of the artificial nerve synapses can be effectively regulated.
In this embodiment, the substrate is one of glass, silicon wafer, polyethylene terephthalate PET, polyethylene naphthalate PEN, polydimethylsiloxane PDMS, or polyurethane PU.
In the embodiment, the width of the electrodes of the source electrode and the drain electrode is 1-500 μm, and the electrode is specifically made of an electrochemically stable conductive material, specifically one of gold, platinum, carbon nanotubes or graphene, and the gate electrode is made of a conductive material with electrochemical activity or without electrochemical activity, specifically one of gold, silver, poly-3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene, polystyrene sulfonate, carbon nanotubes, graphene and graphite alkyne.
In this embodiment, the thickness of the semiconductor layer is 10-1 μm, and the semiconductor layer is specifically made of a composite semiconductor material having both an ion conductor and a conductor, where the mass ratio of the semiconductor material to the insulator material in the composite semiconductor material is 4:1-1:5.
In this embodiment, the encapsulation layer is made of an electrochemically stable insulating material, and is specifically one of parylene-C, cellulose, photoresist SU-8, polystyrene, polydimethylsiloxane PDMS, and polystyrene-ethylene-butylene SEBS.
In this embodiment, the electrolyte layer is a solid or liquid electrolyte having no conductive properties but having ion-conducting properties.
The following describes in detail the preparation method of an artificial nerve synapse based on OECT according to the present invention by combining the above materials, specifically comprising the following steps:
(1) The glass substrate shown in FIG. 1 (b) was ultrasonically cleaned using isopropyl alcohol for 15 minutes and oven dried at 80℃for 2 hours.
(2) Sequentially evaporating 3nm chromium and 120nm gold on the cleaned glass substrate as source electrodes, wherein the width is 30-120 mu m, as shown in fig. 1 (c);
(3) Carrying out ultraviolet ozone cleaning treatment on the silicon wafer evaporated with the electrode layer for about 10 minutes;
(4) Preparing a spin-coated semiconductor layer with a photocrosslinking function, wherein the humidity is controlled to be below 20%, the spin-coating rotating speed is 5000rpm, and the spin-coating is performed for 30 seconds;
(5) Preparing 120nm gold as a drain electrode on the semiconductor layer, wherein the width of the electrode is 30-120 mu m, as shown in fig. 1 (e);
(6) Preparing a spin-coating packaging layer with a photocrosslinking function, and exposing by using 365nm ultraviolet light to expose a patterned channel, as shown in fig. 1 (f);
(7) Approximately 1 μl of PBS buffer was added dropwise to the exposed channels as a dielectric layer, and the gate was connected through the dielectric layer, as shown in fig. 1 (g).
So far, the OECT device with the nerve synapse characteristic is successfully manufactured, and in this embodiment, the source electrode, the drain electrode and the gate electrode are manufactured by one method of evaporation, magnetron sputtering, spraying, ink-jet printing, aerosol printing and screen printing. The semiconductor layer, the packaging layer and the electrolyte layer are prepared by one method of spin coating, spray coating, screen printing, ink-jet printing, 3D printing, aerosol printing, electrofluidic printing or knife coating.
The following we used the prepared artificial synapses for plasticity tests under the following conditions:
(1) The constant drain voltage V D = 0.1V, the gate source voltage is set between 0.1V and minus 0.7V to scan in the forward direction and the reverse direction, the constant drain voltage V D = 0.5V is scanned repeatedly, the output current is captured to obtain the transfer characteristic and the graphs shown in figures 2 (a) - (g) are drawn, and devices with different channel shapes have different hysteresis responses according to the figure 2, wherein the rule is that the smaller the width of the top electrode is, the shorter the ion penetration path is, the smaller the hysteresis of the output current is, and the more obvious the hysteresis is;
(2) The constant drain voltage V D =0.5V, the continuous width of 200ms, the amplitude of-0.7V, the pulse interval (Deltat) of 500ms,400ms,300ms,200ms,100ms,80ms,60ms,40ms and 20ms in sequence, the output double pulse response shown in the figures 3 (a) - (g) is obtained, as can be seen in the figure 3, a pair of continuous short interval pulses are input, the corresponding second pulse response is obviously enhanced compared with the first pulse response, the gain is obviously enhanced along with the pulse interval, the peak value of the twice pulse response is captured, the absolute value of the twice pulse response is increased along with the width of the top electrode, as shown in the figures 4 and 5, the double pulse facilitation characteristic PPF is obtained by calculating the quotient, the obtained value is fitted according to the formula (1) to obtain a curve, the change rule of the double pulse facilitation along with the pulse interval is that the shorter the pulse interval is obvious, and the double pulse facilitation is weaker on the contrary. The shorter the pulse interval is, the lower the degree of ion exudation out of the channel, so that the more ions remain in the channel, and a more obvious enhancement phenomenon is caused;
Wherein C 1、C2 is the undetermined capacitance coefficient of the fitting curve, delta t is the pulse interval, and tau 1、τ2 is the undetermined time constant of the fitting curve. The change rule of the double pulse facilitation along with the pulse interval is that the shorter the pulse interval is, the more obvious the double pulse facilitation is, and on the contrary, the weaker the double pulse facilitation is, the shorter the pulse interval is, the low the degree of ion exudation channel is, so that the more residual ions in the channel are, and the more obvious enhancement phenomenon is caused;
(3) The constant drain voltage V D =0.5V, the input amplitude is-0.7V, the pulse width is 500ms, 100 identical pulses with 50ms pulse intervals are excited, the pulse quantity dependent plasticity response curve of the leakage current I D is drawn according to the change rule of the pulses, as shown in fig. 7 (a) - (g), the quantity dependent plasticity of the device with the small top electrode approximately shows the rule of linearly increasing along with the pulse quantity in 100 pulses, and the device with the larger top electrode earlier shows the output current saturation trend;
In the diagram, the electrode width represents the bottom electrode width x the top electrode width, the artificial synapse hysteresis characteristics of different electrode widths are obviously different, the obtained synapse plasticity is also different, the device hysteresis loop with wider top electrode is obvious, the double pulse facilitation enhancement effect in the synapse plasticity is also more obvious, but the device current with narrower top point set is larger, and the leakage current is easier to reach saturation under the stimulation of a plurality of pulse signals. By the method, the artificial synapse devices with obvious controllability difference can be prepared.
While the foregoing describes illustrative embodiments of the present invention to facilitate an understanding of the present invention by those skilled in the art, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the scope of the embodiments, but is to be construed as protected by the accompanying claims insofar as various changes are within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined and defined by the appended claims.