Design of novel memristor-based neuromorphic circuit and its application in classical conditioning

Inspired by the working mechanism of human brain, the artificial neural network attracts great interest for its capability of parallel processing, which is favored by big data task. However, the electronic synapse based on CMOS neural network needs at least ten transistors to realize one biological synaptic function. So, CMOS-based neural network exhibits obvious weakness in speed, power consumption, circuit area and resource utilization and so on, compared with biological synapses. Therefore, how to build neuromorphic circuits and realize biological functions by constructing electronic synapses with low power consumption and high integration density have become the key points for human to realize brain-like computing system. Memristors, as the fourth basic component, is a two-terminal nonlinear device possessing nonlinear conductance that can be tuned continuously. For that special characteristic, it is very similar to biological synapse whose connection strength can be adjusted continuously. In this article, first of all, we study the electrical characteristic of the Cu/MXene/SiO2/W memristor. When applying a positive DC sweeping voltage to the Cu electrode, the Cu electrode is oxidized, generating Cu2+. The generated Cu2+ in function layer tends tomove towards the bottom electrode under the action of electric field. Near the bottom electrode the Cu2+ moving from top electrode are reduced, generating a conductive Cu atom. With Cu atoms accumulating and extending from bottom electrode to top electrode, the memristor is gradually converted from the initial high resistance state (HRS) into the low resistance state (LRS). Secondly, combining with HP model of memristor, we utilize Verilog A language to simulate memristor in the experiment we conducted. Subsequently, we successfully construct the artificial synaptic unit and design the weight differential circuit with self-feedback branch. In the above circuit, we successfully implementa classical Pavlov's dog experiment. By applying the sinusoidal signal and pulse signal to the synaptic unit for testing and training it, respectively, the circuit realizes the convention between the conditions that unconditioned stimulus producing unconditioned response to conditioned stimulus producing conditions response. This work takes memristor as a center, through modelling the electrical characteristic of Cu/MXene/SiO2/W device, we construct a neuromorphic circuit with weight differential branch and self-feedback branch, successfully simulate the classical learning behavior of biological synapses, and realizes the whole process of biologically conditioned reflex, which is illustrated in detail in the experiment on Pavlov' s dog. The results will provide effective guidance for constructing a large scale and high density neuromorphic circuit based on memristor, thus promoting the realization of brain-like computation in the future.