An artifical synapse based on graphene field-effect transistor with silver gel/polarized-aptamer gate

In this work, we present an artificial synapse based on side-gate graphene-field-effect-transistor (GFET) using biocompatible silver gel/polarized-aptamer as gate dielectric. The gate functions as the presynaptic membrane, while the drain works as postsynaptic membrane. Various synaptic plasticities, including short-term enhancement (STE), short-term depression (STD), long-term potentiation (LTP), long-term depression (LTD) and the transformation from short-term plasticity to long-term plasticity have been emulated by the GFET artificial synapse. A model based on the function of a difference of two exponentials that is widely used to model the biological synapses is proposed, well fitting the behavior of the fabricated artificial synapses under different presynaptic spikes. With a fixed current of -1 ?A applied to postsynaptic membrane, the excitatory-postsynapticpotential-like spikes can be generated at postsynaptic membrane under the positive spikes applied to presynaptic membrane, suggesting the similarities between the artificial and biological synapses.

Automated summary

This work introduces an artificial synapse based on side-gate graphene-field-effect-transistor, successfully emulating various synaptic plasticities and behaviors. The model proposed, based on a widely used function for biological synapses, effectively describes the behavior of the fabricated artificial synapses.