Silicon Neuron Device With Neuronal Oscillation Behavior Based on Light Pulse Modulation

Neuronal oscillation, as the fundamental component of information processing and transmission in the brain, plays a pivotal role in human cognition, learning, and memory. In this article, we introduce a novel silicon neuron device (SND) featuring light pulse modulation, aiming to emulate the oscillatory dynamics observed in biological neurons. The SND fabrication utilizes the
$0.18 ~\mu \text{m}$
standard Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process, with the incorporation of light source control enabling rapid firing of the neurons. The experimental findings demonstrate a strong correlation between the voltage oscillation characteristics of the device and the wavelength, intensity, and frequency of the light pulse. By adjusting the parameters of the pulses, diverse oscillation modes can be achieved. When the wavelength of the input light pulse signal is 480 nm and the intensity is 25 lx, the SND exhibits the capability to achieve stable excitation and quenching of the output pulse within the frequency range of 10 Hz–1 kHz. It demonstrates high sensitivity and strong responsiveness to the input signal. Furthermore, we exploit the strong dependence of the device on the excess bias voltage (
${V} _{\text {EX}}$
) to characterize the stochastic pulse firing of the SND in a light environment. Finally, the pulse firing characteristics of the device under different light source conditions were further quantified through letter recognition functional demonstrations, and it was applied to image preprocessing, effectively improving the accuracy of neural network for digital recognition.