Ferroelectric Relaxation Oscillators and Spiking Neurons

We report the experimental demonstration of the ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FEFET)-based relaxation oscillators and spiking neurons. The ferroelectric relaxation oscillators and the ferroelectric spiking neurons, harnessing the abrupt hysteretic transition feature of ferroelectrics, have a compact 1T-1FEFET structure. The bias conditions of the FEFET can dynamically tune the hysteresis; therefore, the dynamics of oscillations and spikings can be controlled, which enable both excitation and inhibition functions in ferroelectric spiking neurons. Such FEFET-based systems are basic building blocks for efficient computational platforms for non-von Neumann and neuromorphic computing paradigms, such as coupled oscillator networks and spiking neural networks.