A Flexible Artificial Spiking Photoreceptor Enabled by a Single VO2 Mott Memristor for the Spike-Based Electronic Retina

Abstract

The neuromorphic vision system that utilizes spikes as information carriers is crucial for the formation of spiking neural networks. Here, we present a bioinspired flexible artificial spiking photoreceptor (ASP), which is realized by using a single VO2 Mott memristor that can simultaneously sense and encode the stimulus light into spikes. The ASP has high spike-encoded photosensitivity and ultrawide photosensing range (405-808 nm) with good endurance (>7 × 10⁷) and high flexibility (bending radius ∼5 mm). Then, we put forward an all-spike electronic retina architecture that comprises one layer of ASPs and one layer of artificial optical nerves (AONs) to process the spike information. Each AON consists of a single Mott memristor connected in series with a neuro-transistor that is a multiple-input floating-gate MOS transistor. Simulation results demonstrate that the all-spike electronic retina can successfully segment images with high Shannon entropy, thus laying the foundation for the development of a spike-based neuromorphic vision system.