Investigation of Leaky Characteristic in a Single-Transistor-Based Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Neuron

Leaky characteristic in a leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron is important to prevent a permanent effect on a single input stimulus in an artificial neuromorphic system as well as a biological nerve. In a proposed single-transistor-based LIF neuron (1T-neuron), band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) dominates the leaky characteristic. Three methods to control the leaky characteristic of a 1T-neuron are demonstrated in this work: controlling the relative location of the drain junction edge to a gate, tuning the gate voltage (
${V}_{G}$
), and modulating body doping concentration (
${N}_{sub}$
). The 1T-neuron becomes leakier with a more overlapped drain junction with the gate, decreased
${V}_{G}$
, and increased
${N}_{sub}$
by accelerating the BTBT.