Emulation of neuro-mimetic dynamics via GaSb/Si heterojunction V-DGTFET leaky-integrate-fire silicon neuron

Abstract

A leaky integrate and fire (LIF) neuron property is emulated using vertically developed double gate GaSb/Si tunnel field effect transistor (V-DGTFET). The suggested device can precisely replicate the neuronal dynamics after considering and proper validating the numerical simulations. Silvaco-TCAD tool is exploited for emulation of neuronal attributes and found in good agreement with earlier published research data. The article reports the membrane threshold voltage of 0.47 V which is 3.2x, 2.13x, 2.13x, 1.28x times less as compared to silicon nanowire, MOSFET, phase change device and Bulk FinFET neuron. The energy required for mimicking the neurons is computed as 0.748 aJ which is 1.2 × 109, 4 × 107, 4.68 × 107, 1.34 × 107, 7.59 × 106, 8.42 × 103, 4.30 × 103 3.34 × 105, 2.41 × 105, 1.52 × 106, 26.7,2, 3.88 × 103 times less compared to CMOS, phase change device, SOI CMOS, PCMO RRAM, SiNPN, Bulk FinFET, BTBT based PDSOI MOS, FBFET, LBIMOS, DGJLFET, Si NIPIN, DL-TFET, silicon nano wire respectively. The biasing at second gate is used to induce potential well at channel region to accumulate hole carriers produced due to impact ionization. The threshold current is achieved at 0.20 V drain voltage which is 15x, 14x, 10x, and 1.5x less as compared to FinFET, PD-SOI MOSFET, LBIMOS, and DLTFET respectively. Furthermore, calculated spiking frequency of V-DGTFET LIF neuron is 534 GHz. Thus, remarkable enhancement in frequency of operation and an ultra-low energy per spike makes this neuron device a potential solution for implementing the neuro-mimetic behaviour at large scale.