Abstract

In order to address a fundamental bottleneck of conventional digital computers, there is recently a tremendous upsurge of investigations on hardware-based neuromorphic systems. To emulate the functionalities of artificial neural networks, various synaptic devices and their 2-D cross-point array structures have been proposed. In our previous work, we proposed the 3-D synapse array architecture based on a charge-trap flash (CTF) memory. It has the advantages of high-density integration of 3-D stacking technology and excellent reliability characteristics of mature CTF device technology. This paper examines some issues of the 3-D synapse array architecture. Also, we propose an improved structure and programming method compared to the previous work. The synaptic characteristics of the proposed method are closely examined and validated through a technology computer-aided design (TCAD) device simulation and a system-level simulation for the pattern recognition task. The proposed technology will be the promising solution for high-performance and high-reliability of neuromorphic hardware systems.

Highlights

  • Neuromorphic systems have been attracting much attention for next-generation computing systems to overcome the von Neumann architecture [1,2,3,4,5]

  • We proposed a 3-D stacked synapse array based on a charge trap flash (CTF)

  • Using a pattern recognition application with the Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology (MNIST) database, we demonstrate the improvement of the proposed method

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Summary

Introduction

Neuromorphic systems have been attracting much attention for next-generation computing systems to overcome the von Neumann architecture [1,2,3,4,5]. The term “neuromorphic” refers to an artificial neural system that mimics neurons and synapses of the biological nervous system [3]. A synapse refers to the junction between neurons, and each synapse has its own synaptic weight which is the connection strength between neurons [6]. Synaptic weight can be represented by the conductance of synapse device. The requirements of a synapse device to implement a neuromorphic system are as follows: small cell size, low-energy consumption, multi-level operations, symmetric and linear weight change, high endurance and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatibility [5]

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