Nanoscopic Electrolyte-Gated Vertical Organic Transistors with Low Operation Voltage and Five Orders of Magnitude Switching Range for Neuromorphic Systems

Electrolyte-gated organic transistors (EGOTs) are promising candidates as a new class of neuromorphic devices in hardware-based artificial neural networks that can outperform their complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) counterparts regarding processing speed and energy consumption. Several ways in which to implement such networks exist, two prominent methods of which can be implemented by nanoscopic vertical EGOTs, as we show here. First, nanoscopic vertical electrolyte-gated transistors with a donor-acceptor diketopyrrolopyrrole-terthiophene polymer as an active material can be used to reversibly switch the channel conductivity over five orders of magnitude (3.8 nS to 392 μS) and perform switching at low operation voltages down to -1 mV. Second, nanoscopic EGOTs can also mimic fundamental synaptic functions, and we show an interconnection of up to three transistors, highlighting the possibility to emulate biological nerve cells.