An Organic Electrochemical Neuron for a Neuromorphic Perception System

Human perception systems are highly refined, relying on an adaptive, plastic and event-driven network of sensory neurons. Drawing inspiration from Nature, neuromorphic perception systems hold tremendous potential for efficient multi-sensory signal processing in the physical world, however the development of an efficient artificial neuron with a wide calibratable spiking range and reduced footprint remains challenging. Here we report an efficient organic electrochemical neuron (OECN) with reduced footprint (<37 mm²) based on high-performance vertical OECT (vOECT) complementary circuitry enabled by a new n-type polymer for balanced p-/n-type OECT performance. The OECN exhibits outstanding neuronal characteristics, capable of producing spikes with a widely calibratable state-of-the art firing frequency range of 0.130-147.1 Hz. Leveraging this capability, we developed a neuromorphic perception system that integrates mechanical sensors with the OECN and integrates them with an artificial synapse for tactile perception. The system successfully encodes tactile stimulations into frequency-dependent spikes, which are further converted into postsynaptic responses. This bioinspired design demonstrates significant potential to advance cyborg and neuromorphic systems, providing them with perceptual capabilities.