Multi-gate organic neuron transistors for

spatiotemporal information processing

Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 083302 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4977069
Submitted: 07 December 2016 • Accepted: 07 February 2017 • Published Online: 23 February 2017

Chuan Qian, Ling-an Kong, Junliang Yang, et al.

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Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 083302 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4977069 110, 083302

© 2017 Author(s).
 APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 110, 083302 (2017)

Multi-gate organic neuron transistors for spatiotemporal information

processing
Chuan Qian,1 Ling-an Kong,1 Junliang Yang,1 Yongli Gao,1,2,a) and Jia Sun1,a)
1
Hunan Key Laboratory for Super Microstructure and Ultrafast Process, School of Physics and Electronics,
Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, People’s Republic of China
2
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
(Received 7 December 2016; accepted 7 February 2017; published online 23 February 2017)
Due to similar transmission characteristics of biological synaptic activities, neuromorphic
behaviors simulated by organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) is of great interest. In this
letter, the fabrication and performance of multi-gate poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) OECTs with
ion-gel gating are reported. The neuromorphic behaviors, such as dendrite correlated excitatory
postsynaptic current (EPSC), paired pulse facilitation, and modulation, were simulated in the
OECTs. These behaviors were observed to depend on the degree of temporal correlation and dis-
tance between the in-plane-gate and the channel. More importantly, by using dendritic integration
from two different gates, spatiotemporally correlated outputs were also emulated. The spatial orien-
tations of the input pulse are defined, and changing the orientation will result in a change in the
EPSC amplitude. Our results provide a way to construct spatiotemporally neural network based on
multi-gate OECTs. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4977069]

Organic semiconductors offer unique features such as
low cost, flexibility, and large-area process properties, and
many electronic devices based on organic semiconductors
have been developed, including organic light-emitting diodes,
organic photovoltaics, and organic field-effect transistors.1–6
In recent years, organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs)
have attracted considerable interest in bioelectronics and
sensing.7,8 OECTs are organic transistor devices that use an
electrolyte as the dielectric material and form extremely high
specific capacitance of the electric-double-layer (EDL), typi-
cally larger than 1 lF/cm2.9,10 As a result, OECTs can be
operated at very low voltages (typically below 2.0 V) to
derive a large number of charges in the channel. It is known
that the synaptic activities are achieved via various ionic
fluxes,11,12 and the OECTs transmit a signal based on the
motion of ions.13 It is therefore possible that the OECT can
be used for emulating biological synaptic behaviors due to
their similar transmission characteristics. In this context, a
few endeavors have been reported that utilized OECTs
in artificial synaptic devices.13–16 Recently, Malliaras and
his group have first demonstrated the fabrication of OECTs
based artificial synapses by using liquid electrolyte gating.14
Importantly, the function of spatial synaptic mapping and
integration was achieved in these devices.15 However, with
liquid electrolyte, the electrolyte-ion-polarization-induced
leakage current could distort the drain current in the channel.
Xu et al. have reported organic nanowire synaptic transistors
with ultralow energy consumption.16 Most recently, our
group has demonstrated that solid-state ion-gel laterally gated
OECTs can be used for the simulation of biological synapses.
Although some important behaviors are successfully mim-
icked in artificial synapses, such as excitatory postsynaptic
current (EPSC), paired pulse facilitation (PPF), synaptic fil-
ter, and synaptic plasticity, an essential aspect of neuron
network is still untouched that many synaptic inputs are
a)
Electronic addresses: ygao@csu.edu.cn and jiasun@csu.edu.cn
transformed from dendrites. Therefore, it is important to
study the spatiotemporal synaptic response and to extract its
global properties and configuration.
In this letter, we demonstrate the fabrication of organic
neuron transistors with a multi-gate dendritic input array.
EPSC is shown to be dependent on the degree of temporal
correlation and distance between the in-plane-gate and the
channel. More importantly, spatiotemporally correlated out-
puts were also emulated by using dendritic integration. The
spatial orientations are defined by the geometry of dendritic
array, and changing the orientation will result in a change in
the EPSC amplitude.
Figure 1(a) shows a simple picture of a biological synap-
tic integration in a neuron.17 The pre-synaptic neuron can
transmit many synaptic input signals from a different den-
drite to a synapse, which occurs via the motion of chemical
ions from the pre-neuron to the post-neuron. Figure 1(b) dis-
plays the device structure of an ion-gel coupling P3HT neu-
ron transistor with a multi-in-plane-gate structure on the
200 nm-SiO2/Si (Si-Mat, Silicon Materials) substrate. The
multi-dendritic input structure of neuron is thought to be
very useful for enriching information transmission and the
computational ability. To mimic neuromorphic functions,
the P3HT is considered as post-neuron, ion-gel as pre-
neuron, in-plane Au electrodes as the dendrite, and conduc-
tance of channel as the synaptic weight. Polymer P3HT is
purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, which was dissolved in
dichlorobenzene (15 mg/ml). After being spin-coated, P3HT
films were cured at 50  C for 2 h. Thermally deposited Au
electrodes through a micrometer sized carbon fiber shadow
mask on the top of the P3HT film were used as the source,
drain, and in-plane-gate, which define a channel with a
length of 6 lm and with a width of 200 lm. The preparation
of the ion-gel films (P(VDF-HFP) þ [EMI][TFSA]) followed
the previous method, and the gels were then transferred to
the device as the gate dielectric by employing “cut and stick”
processes.18 Electrical performance of the transistors and

0003-6951/2017/110(8)/083302/4/$30.00 110, 083302-1 Published by AIP Publishing.

083302-2 Qian et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 083302 (2017)

In a brain, the spatiotemporal synaptic response in corti-

cal neurons is a significant part in the formation of dynamic
cell assemblies.22 Information processing is spatiotemporal,
and the neuron network is very complicated, in which many
synaptic inputs are transformed from dendrites of pre-neuron
to post-neuron. The outputs are sensitive to both the timing
and the location of inputs.23,24 Both the spike pulse duration
and distances between the in-plane-gate and the channel
(dendrite to post-synapse) will contribute to a change in
EPSC. The spatiotemporal synaptic response in P3HT-based
neuron transistors is shown in Figure 2(a), which is a 3-D-
scatter plot, describing the EPSCs as a function of pulse
duration of 30 to 100 ms and the dendrite to post-synapse
distance of 1.08 to 2.64 mm. Each point is the average value
of six peak EPSCs. The point with 100 ms duration and
1.08 mm distance between dendrite and post-synapse is
extracted from Figure 1(c). With the increased duration,
more and more ions move onto the interface of ion-gel/semi-
conductor,13 and the average peak EPSC is increased from
1.79 lA to 7.89 lA. Moreover, with 100 ms duration and
2.64 mm distance, the average peak EPSC is just 2.33 lA,
3.4 times smaller than the value with 100 ms duration and
1.08 mm distance. It is known that the ion-gel electrolyte
FIG. 1. (a) A simple schematic picture of a biological synaptic integration in resistivity and the area covered by ion-gel are constant val-
a neuron. (b) Schematic illustrations of the P3HT-based neuron transistor ues. If the gate-to-channel distance is larger, fewer ions will
with a multi-in-plane-gate structure. (c) EPSCs triggered by six pre-synaptic diffuse to the ion-gel/P3HT interface, and the Ids in the chan-
spikes (2.0 V, 90 ms) applied at the gate electrode 1 are shown as a func-
nel will be relatively small.15 The temporal response depends
tion of time.
on the distance between the in-plane-gate and the channel.
neuromorphic behaviors were measured by a semiconductor
parameter characterization system (Keithley 4200 SCS) in
air and at room temperature.
For the organic electrochemical transistor, under a gate
electric field, the drain current is controlled by the injection of
ions from an electrolyte into a semiconductor channel.13 The
transfer and output characteristic curves of the device are
shown in Figure S1 (supplementary material). When the gate
voltage is decreased from 2.0 V to 2.0 V with a low source-
drain voltage of 1.0 V, the Ids increases from 1.5  107 A
to 1.1  105 A. To represent the synaptic strength in our
organic neuromorphic devices, a potential spike signal is
applied on the arbitrary gate electrode, which can trigger the
motion of [TFSA]– ions from ion-gel to the P3HT film and a
peak EPSC in the channel.13 Figure 1(c) shows the typical
temporal response of the organic neuron transistors to six
2.0 V pre-synaptic spikes (interval is about 3 s) applied on
G1 electrode with 100 ms duration. Because the devices are
reliable and the P3HT layer is reversibly de-doped to its initial
state under gate voltage back to 2.0 V, the peak EPSC is rela-
tively stable, and the average value of six peak EPSCs is about
7.89 lA. All the synaptic simulations are measured with a con-
stant potential Vds ¼ 0.5 V applied on the source-drain elec-
trodes. EPSCs recorded in response to the train of pulses
(interval is about 50 ms) are shown in Figure S2 (supplemen-
tary material). When the interval is shortened to 50 ms, the FIG. 2. (a) Spatiotemporal EPSC response in P3HT-based neuron transis-
short-term plasticity (STP) and self-tuning are reproduced, tors. A 3-D-scatter plot describing the EPSCs as a function of pulse duration
which are discussed in the biological system.19–21 As the and the distance between the in-plane-gate and the channel (dendrite to post-
synapse). (b) Paired-pulse facilitation ratio as a function of interval (Dt) and
pulses applied, the peak EPSC is initially hypersensitive and
the distance between in-plane-gate and channel. The inset in (b) shows
subsequently adapts to the stimulation. After the end of the EPSCs triggered by paired pulses applied at the gate electrode 1 with the
train of pulses, the EPSC is back to the initial level. pulse Dt of 50 ms.
083302-3 Qian et al.
With the distance increasing from 1.08 to 2.64 mm, the slope
of the spatiotemporal synaptic integration curve decrease from
about 0.028 lA/ms to 0.087 lA/ms, thus to evoke a large
response, a longer pulse duration time is needed. The EPSCs
depend both on spatial and temporal characteristics of dendritic
inputs, which are important for neural network construction.
We emulated the paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) with the
in-plane-gate and the channel distance in the organic neuron
transistors. The behavior of PPF is a kind of STP and very
important for neural activities.25,26 The inset in Figure 2(b)
shows that EPSCs triggered by paired pulses applied at the
gate electrode 1 with the pulse Dt of 50 ms and the channel
current are measured as a function of time. A1 and A2 are the
peak EPSCs of the first and second spikes, respectively. A2
is facilitated by the residual ions triggered by the first spike.
The PPF ratio of two amplitudes (A2/A1) as a function of
interval (Dt) and the dendrite to post-synapse distance is
shown in Figure 2(b). The pulse Dt and the dendrite to post-
synapse distance for PPF measurement were ranged from
50 to 800 ms and 1.08 to 2.64 mm. A2/A1 shows a distance-
dependent weight, especially when the Dt is smaller than
200 ms. When Dt ¼ 50 ms, the A2/A1 reaches the top point in
each line. The maximum value of 149.2% is obtained when
the distance is 1.08 mm. When the distance is increased to
2.64 mm, the value is reduced to 117.1%. With a nearer loca-
tion away from the channel, the residual ions triggered by
dendrites in a short time are much more. With the interval
lengthened to 800 ms, the A2 is almost equal to A1, and most
of the ions triggered by the first spike are back to the ion-gel
for three kinds of distance.
Under changing conditions, synaptic modulation pro-
vides flexibility to operate, which is a ubiquitous phenome-
non in physiological systems.27 The realization of dynamic
synaptic behaviors by using modulation voltage (VM) is very
useful for understanding the principle of neural networks and
guiding the innovation of neural circuits.28,29 Especially,
Professor Ren’s group has demonstrated the dynamic
synaptic plasticity by using the modulation voltage of the
back gate.29 For our organic neuron transistors, the output
response can be tuned in a wide range by the VM of the in-
plane gate. As shown in Figure 3(a), the modulatory effect of
VM and Vpulse is plotted as a 3-D-scatter plot. To mimic the
modulation behavior, ten pre-synaptic spikes of VPulse with a
duration time of 50 ms are applied on the G1 electrode, and
the constant modulation voltage (VM) is applied on the G2
electrode, simultaneously. Each point in Figure 3(a) is the
average of the ten peaks. Without modulation of VM and
when the VPulse is set to 1 V, there are limited holes
increased in the channel and the average of peak EPSCs is
just about 1.9 lA; when the VPulse and VM are both set to
2 V, many ions move onto the interface of ion-gel/semicon-
ductor to modulate the peak EPSC, and the value is up to
16.08 lA. When more negative voltage is applied on the mod-
ulatory terminal, a more obvious modulatory effect of VM and
Vpulse is observed, and the average of peak EPSCs has about
eight times of increasing magnitude. Modulation may reflect
a change in the relationship between spatiotemporal synaptic
input and output. The influences of distance between the in-
plane gate and the channel on the spatiotemporally correlated
outputs from two different dendritic positions were also
Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 083302 (2017)
FIG. 3. (a) The modulatory effect of VM and Vpulse is plotted as a 3-D-scatter
plot. (b) Dendrite to post-synapse distance-dependent EPSCs of the ion-gel
gated organic neuron transistors with two in-plane spike inputs applied
at the two gate electrodes with same dendrite to post-synapse distance,
simultaneously.
studied. A schematic image is shown in Figure S3 (supple-
mentary material): the two inputs are applied at the two gate
electrodes with the same dendrite to post-synapse distance,
simultaneously. Figure 3(b) shows the distance correlated
average peak EPSCs of the integration of two in-plane pre-
synaptic inputs. Pre-synaptic inputs are applied at the gate
electrodes 1 and 2, the vertical distance between channel and
gate electrode 1 or 2 is 1.08 mm, and the average peak EPSC
is about 2.768 lA; inputs applied at the gate electrodes 5 and
6, the vertical distance between channel and gate electrode
5 or 6 is 2.64 mm, and the average peak EPSC is about
1.482 lA. The peak EPSC shows a linear relationship with
the distance between dendrite and post-synapse, which
meshes well with the experimental finding in Figure 2(a) with
single input.
The neurons in primary visual cortex have strong tuning
to a small set of stimuli, and the neuronal responses can dis-
criminate small changes in colors, spatial frequencies, and
visual orientations.30 In our study, the spatiotemporal den-
dritic integration with correlated inputs can be illustrated by
spatial orientations. Figure 4(b) shows the schematic image
of the ion-gel gated organic neuron transistors with two in-
plane pre-synaptic inputs applied at the gate electrode 0 and
another gate electrode x (x ¼ 16), simultaneously. The spa-
tial orientations of the input pulse are defined by the angle
ranging from 0 to 180 . The gate electrode 0 is defined as
the common endpoint of each angle, the line between the
gate electrodes 0 and 5 as the common ray, and the line
between the gate electrodes 0 and x as the other ray. EPSC
triggered by eight pre-synaptic spikes (2.0 V) applied at
the gate electrodes 0 and 5 is shown versus time with the
duration of 50 ms in Figure 4(a). When the input spikes trig-
gered simultaneously on two dendrites, the EPSC in the
083302-4 Qian et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 083302 (2017)

FIG. 4. (a) EPSCs triggered by eight pre-synaptic spikes (2.0 V) applied at the gate electrodes 0 and 5 are shown versus time with a duration of 50 ms.
(b) Schematic image of the ion-gel gated organic neuron transistors with two in-plane pre-synaptic inputs applied at the gate electrode 0 and another gate elec-
trode x (x ¼ 1–6), simultaneously. The spatial orientations of the input pulse are defined by the angle range from 0 to 180 . The gate electrode 0 is defined as
the common endpoint of each angle, the line between the gate electrodes 0 and 5 as the common ray, and the line between the gate electrodes 0 and x as the
other ray. (c) Polar diagram of the EPSCs for different spatial orientations of the input pulse.

1
channel can be observed, and the average value is about
1.38 lA. Figure 4(c) shows the Polar diagram of the EPSCs
2
for different spatial orientations of the input pulse. Each
point is the average of the eight peaks, and the average val-
3
ues are demonstrated in Table S1 (supplementary material).
When the orientation angle is 129.8 , the maximum tuning
4
response (2.22 lA) is obtained. The average peak EPSC is
gradually increased with the orientation angle changed from 5
0 to 50.2 or from 180 to 129.8 , which is similar to the 6
orientation tuning curve in the primary visual cortex.31 The
multi-gate organic neuron transistors have a symmetrical 7
arrangement of gate array, but the average peak EPSC trig-
8
gered simultaneously on the gate electrodes 0 and x (2, 4,
and 6) is larger than the average peak EPSC triggered on the
9
gate electrode 0 and corresponding x (1, 3, 5). The peak
EPSC follows the empirical formula of I / A=d, where d is 10
the distance from the gate to drain electrode; A is constant in
11
this comparison, dependent on electrode area, electrolyte
12
resistivity, and pre-synaptic spike.15 Thus, increased ampli-
tudes of peak EPSC are measured for the gates, which are 13
closer to the drain electrode.
14
In summary, the fabrication and performance of artifi-
cial neuron transistors based on multi-gate OECTs with ion- 15
gel dielectrics are reported. The neuromorphic behaviors are
16
dependent on the degree of temporal correlation and distance
between in-plane-gate and channel. Furthermore, by using 17
dendritic integration from two different gates, spatiotempo-
rally correlated outputs were also emulated. The spatial ori- 18
entations of the input pulse are defined, and changing the
19
orientation will result in the change in the EPSC amplitude.
Our results provide a way to construct a complicated neural 20
network based on spatiotemporal correlated multi-gate
21
OECTs.
22
23
See supplementary material for transfer and output char- 24
25
acteristic curves of P3HT-based OFET, related characteriza-
26
tions, and setup.
27
This work was supported by the National Natural 28
Science Foundation of China (61306085, 11334014) and the
29
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of
Central South University (2016zzts018). Y. G. acknowledges 30
the support by National Science Foundation DMR-1303742
31
and CBET-1437656.
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