Impact of electrolyte density on synaptic characteristics of oxygen-based ionic synaptic transistor

Neuromorphic computing, an innovative technology inspired by the human brain, has attracted increasing attention as a promising technology for the development of artificial intelligence systems. This study proposes synaptic transistors with a Li1-xAlxTi2-x(PO4)3 (LATP) layer to analyze the conductance modulation linearity, which is essential for weight mapping and updating during on-chip learning processes. The high ionic conductivity of the LATP electrolyte provides a large hysteresis window and enables linear weight update in synaptic devices. The results demonstrate that optimizing the LATP layer thickness improves the conductance modulation and linearity of synaptic transistors during potentiation and degradation. A 20 nm-thick LATP layer results in the most nonlinear depression (αd = -6.59), whereas a 100 nm-thick LATP layer results in the smallest nonlinearity (αd = -2.22). Additionally, a device with the optimal 100 nm-thick LATP layer exhibits the highest average recognition accuracy of 94.8% and the smallest fluctuation, indicating that the linearity characteristics of a device play a crucial role in weight update during learning and can significantly affect the recognition accuracy.

Ferrimagnetic materials with antiparallel exchange coupling, exhibit spin‐orbit‐torque‐induced dynamics, offering an emerging platform for realizing neuromorphic devices, such as artificial synapses. However, the state‐of‐the‐art artificial synapses based on ferrimagnet suffer from poor analog switching linearity, which serves as a bottleneck for achieving complex tasks with high accuracy in neuromorphic computing. Here, an artificial synapse is reported with high‐weight update linearity in a compensated ferrimagnetic crossbar device. In particular, the linear weight update of the synapses is enhanced by engineering the current density distribution. Using experimentally derived device parameters, handwritten digit recognition can be achieved with an accuracy of over 95% in a three‐layer fully connected artificial neural network. The work provides a universal method to improve the synaptic linearity, which also paves the way for applying the spin‐orbit device in neuromorphic computing.

This paper proposes a burst-mode optical fiber amplifier (OFA) that consists of a combination of an automatic gain controlled praseodymium-doped fiber amplifier (AGC-PDFA), a fast automatic level controlled circuit (ALC), and a PDFA with just forward pumping. The second PDFA is used as a booster to achieve high gain, over 20 dB. The combination of AGC and ALC techniques suppresses optical surge generation against strong burst signal inputs and also prevents overloading of the burst-mode receivers; it provides OFA-based passive optical network (PON) repeaters with wide input dynamic range and solves the near–far problem in upstream transmission in long-reach PONs. We experimentally compare the operating range of the proposed burst-mode PDFA with that of a conventional burst-mode PDFA. Experiments show that the proposed PDFA achieves a much wider operating area than a conventional PDFA; a wide dynamic range in an access span of 17.5 dB, which is equivalent to the input dynamic range of the burst-mode receiver used in 10 gigabit Ethernet PON (10G-EPON), is obtained with an allowable loss margin of 14 dB in a trunk span. A maximum link budget of 55 dB is achievable.

A reversible optical membrane sensor for detection of Hg(II) was developed based on the colorimetric determination of tetrathia-12-crown-4-Hg(II), incorporating chromoionophore I (ETH5294) as a lipophilic H+-selective indicator, and sodium tetra phenyl borate (NaTPB) as a lipophilic anionic site. A decrease in absorption of the membrane at 664 nm and/or increase at 555 nm could be used as a suitable wavelength for quantitative determination of Hg(II). This membrane is capable of determining mercury(II) ions over a wide linear dynamic range 1.0 × 10−9 to 9.5 × 10−5 mol L−1 Hg(II) at pH 7.0 with detection limits of 8.1 × 10−10 mol L−1 Hg(II) and response time of 100 s. The optode reveals a very good selectivity toward Hg(II) ions over a wide variety of other metal ions in solution and the response to Hg(II) is fully reversible. Performance characteristics of the sensor evaluated as good reversibility, wide dynamic range, long life span, long-term response stability, and high reproducibility. The optode was applied to the determination of mercury(II) in water samples. The accuracy of the results was comparable to those obtained by cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry.

Metal-oxide nano-porous microstructures have shown high electrocatalytic activity toward hydrogen peroxide oxidation. In this paper, we establish the copper oxide (CuO) porous hollow structures via the hydrothermal method using pluronic F-127 as a surfactant. The electrochemical performance involves the oxidation between Cu(I) and Cu(II) at room temperature. For verifying the formation of the desired morphology of CuO porous hollow structures, the scanning electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy and H2-temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) were applied. The synthesized samples are hollow microstructures which are formed by CuO nanoparticles. The achieved CuO hollow structures exhibit excellent H2O2 detection properties such as a very low detection limit of 141.1 nM, an extremely wide dynamic detection range of 50 nM–70 mM, an outstanding sensitivity of 13.7 µA µM−1 cm−2 and satisfactory stability in alkaline solution. The good tolerance toward interfering species, the satisfactory behaviour in repeatability and reproducibility and favourable stability verified the promising performance of the proposed sensor. The results of the study on sensing low levels of H2O2 concentrations by using a modified glassy carbon electrode as an optimized electrochemical sensor have been reported. The proposed synthesized nanostructures (CuO porous hollow structures) can be used as sensitive H2O2 biosensors. Essential characterizations and measurements have been performed. The constructed sensor shows acceptable electrocatalytic activity for detecting H2O2. High sensitivity, very low LOD, wide dynamic range, excellent tolerance toward interfering agents, favorable stability and satisfactory reproducibility and repeatability of the sensor have made it suitable for practical applications.

To unravel the temporal features of the peripheral tissue injury induced persistent nociceptive discharge, single wide dynamic range (WDR) unit activity was recorded extracellularly in lumbar dorsal horn of anesthetized rats and interspike interval (ISI) series were obtained. Subcutaneous (s.c.) bee venom (BV) injection induced persistent discharge of spinal WDR neurons and has been well established to be a good model in evaluation of tissue injury induced pain. By applying a more novel approach, i.e., the unstable periodic orbit (UPO) identification method, we detected a family of significant separate UPOs (period-1, 2 and 3 orbits) within the ISI series of BV-induced nociceptive discharge, but not spontaneous background activity of spinal WDR neuron. Furthermore, temporally dynamic changes of UPOs at lower period-1, 2 and 3 for 4 successive time segments within 1 h time course of WDR unit firing showed temporally dynamic changes, i.e., new orbits with longer ISIs emerged and those with shorter ISIs vanished with time change. By using this method we suggest that BV-induced nociceptive discharge of spinal WDR neuron be a kind of deterministic activity and various UPOs may play some role in temporal coding of sensory information.

There is a growing need in industrial and scientific research applications for very wide dynamic range, high sensitivity imaging methods. To fill this need, an advanced back-illuminated avalanche photodiode (APD) design is presented based on crystallographically etched (100) epitaxial silicon on R-plane sapphire (SOS), enabling large single photon sensitive, solid-state focal plane arrays with very wide dynamic range. The design will enable reliable and low cost fabrication. When (100) silicon is properly etched with KOH:IPA:H2O solution through a thermally grown oxide mask, square based pyramidal frustum or mesa arrays result with the four mesa sidewalls of the APD formed by (111) silicon planes that intersect the (100) planes at a crystallographic angle of 54.7 degrees. The APD is fabricated in the silicon mesa. Very wide dynamic range operation at high quantum efficiencies exceeding 50% for 250 nm<lambda<400 nm and exceeding 80% for 400 nm<lambda<700 nm, is enabled by a carefully optimized p-type boron spatial impurity profile, fabricated by high temperature diffusion. Monte Carlo modeling confirms the majority of electron-hole pairs are photogenerated outside of the narrow device multiplication region, resulting in a very low APD excess noise factor.

A crossbar array of Pt/CeO2/Pt memristors exhibited the synaptic characteristics such as analog, reversible, and strong resistance change with a ratio of ∼103, corresponding to wide dynamic range of synaptic weight modulation as potentiation and depression with respect to the voltage polarity. In addition, it presented timing-dependent responses such as paired-pulse facilitation and the short-term to long-term memory transition by increasing amplitude, width, and repetition number of voltage pulse and reducing the interval time between pulses. The memory loss with a time was fitted with a stretched exponential relaxation model, revealing the relation of memory stability with the input stimuli strength. The resistance change was further enhanced but its stability got worse as increasing measurement temperature, indicating that the resistance was changed as a result of voltage- and temperature-dependent electrical charging and discharging to alter the energy barrier for charge transport. These detailed synaptic characteristics demonstrated the potential of crossbar array of Pt/CeO2/Pt memristors as artificial synapses in highly connected neuron-synapse network.

Mobile applications present new image quality challenges. Automotive vision requires reliable capture of scene detail. Photospace measurements have shown that the extremely wide intrascene dynamic range of traffic scenes necessitates wide-dynamic-range (WDR) technology. Multiple-slope complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology adaptively extends dynamic range by partially resetting the pixel, resulting in a response curve with piecewise linear slopes of progressively increasing compression. As compression and thus dynamic range increase, a trade-off against detail loss is observed. Incremental signal-to-noise ratio (iSNR) has been proposed in ISO/TC42 standards for determining dynamic range, and this work describes how to adapt these to WDR. Measurements and computer simulations reveal that the observed trade-off between WDR extension and the loss of local detail can be explained by a drop in iSNR at each reset point. If a reset is not timed optimally, then iSNR may drop below the detection limit causing an iSNR hole to appear within the dynamic range. Thus iSNR has extended utility: it not only determines the dynamic range limits but also defines dynamic range as the luminance range where detail detection is reliable. It has become the critical criterion when maximizing dynamic range to maintain the minimum necessary level of detection reliability.

This paper presents an investigation and a correction technique for fixed pattern noise in wide dynamic range image sensor with on the focal plane Reinhard tone mapping. The Human eye is capable of capturing images over a wide dynamic range of illumination; however, typical CMOS image sensors have limited ability to capture dynamic range available in nature. Even when wide dynamic range images are captured, they need to be displayed on conventional media with limited ability to display WDR scenes. Hence, the image has algorithmically transformed by mathematical operators called tone mapping operators to fit the limited dynamic range. In this paper, we report our research on a pixel, which captures a scene with inbuilt tone mapping operator, particularly, the Reinhard photographic mapping operator, which is a monotonically increasing function. However, the inherent Fixed pattern noise(FPN) limits the performance of image sensors. This is mainly due to the variations between the responses of individual pixels within an array of pixels. A simple procedure has been adapted to reduce FPN in which parametric response of the pixel is used, with FPN modeled as variations in the individual parameters. The parameters of each individual pixel are measured, recorded and then used to correct their response.

1. Most quantitative examinations of nociception are performed with thermal or mechanical stimuli. Because nociceptive processing mechanisms may depend on the modality of the stimuli, comparable studies on chemonociception are necessary. 2. We examined the activity of chemonociceptive medullary dorsal horn neurons in halothane-anesthetized rats. For controlled noxious chemical stimulation, defined CO2 pulses were applied to the nasal mucosa. The effects of stimulus intensity, duration, and interstimulus interval (ISI) were tested by performing three different CO2 stimulation protocols (see below). 3. The recorded neurons were characterized by intranasal and facial stimuli of different modalities. The cells received input from intranasal A delta- and/or C-fibers. All tested neurons also responded to other intranasally applied irritants, e.g., mustard oil. Furthermore, the units were sensitive to intranasal high-threshold mechanical stimulation and to facial mechanical stimulation. According to the properties of their facial mechanoreceptive fields, the units were classified as wide dynamic range (WDR) or nociceptive specific (NS) neurons. The majority of the cells also responded to facially applied noxious heat stimuli, so that most of the recorded neurons were found to be multimodal. Some of the neurons, in addition, had convergent input from primary afferents innervating the maxillary tooth pulps or the cornea and periorbital structures. 4. In the first stimulation protocol we presented four different CO2 concentrations (25, 50, 75, and 100%; stimulus duration 2 s). In total, each concentration was applied 10 times (2 trains of 5 stimuli). Stimulus response functions (SRFs) were computed with average responses to identical stimuli. All but 2 of the 23 tested neurons displayed enhanced responses after stimulation with increasing intensities. In general, WDR cells (n = 15) discharged more vigorously to the same CO2 concentration than NS cells (n = 8). WDR neurons discriminated more reliably between stimulus intensities in the low to moderate range (25-50% CO2) than NS cells. Both categories of neurons, however, discriminated equally well in the moderate- to high-intensity range (50-75% CO2). The discriminatory capacity of WDR and NS neurons was reduced in the highest concentration range (75-100% CO2). The proportion of NS neurons significantly discriminating between these intensities tended to be higher compared with WDR neurons when stimuli were applied with long ISIs (120 s). 5. To examine the effects of the duration of the ISI, identical test sequences were performed with ISIs of 30 and 120 s. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

The activity of 160 single neurons excited by electrical stimulation of the canine tooth pulp was studied in the subnucleus caudalis (medullary dorsal horn) and the subnucleus oralis of the trigeminal (V) spinal tract nucleus in chloralose-anesthetized cats to test the effects of natural as well as electrical stimulation of the tooth pulp. The neurons were functionally classified on the basis of their cutaneous receptive-field properties as low-threshold mechanoreceptive (LTM), wide dynamic range (WDR), or nociceptive specific (NS). The orofacial receptive-field properties and responses evoked by electrical stimulation of the tooth pulp indicated that the oralis and caudalis neurons examined had characteristics typical of those previously documented for oralis LTM neurons and for caudalis LTM, WDR, and NS neurons. Each neuron was also tested with cold and warm stimulation of the canine tooth, and some neurons were also tested for responsiveness to thermal stimulation of the premolar tooth or to mechanical and chemical stimuli delivered to the dentine of the canine tooth. Although all the neurons could be excited by electrical stimulation of the pulp, we found that the only neurons that consistently responded to thermal pulp stimuli were those located in the V subnucleus caudalis. Moreover, only those caudalis neurons that had been functionally classified as nociceptive (4 WDR and 21 NS neurons) showed this responsiveness. Heating of the canine or premolar tooth excited 24 of these 25 nociceptive neurons; cooling activated only 3, and none of the small number of neurons tested with mechanical and chemical stimulation of the dentine was excited. The response of the nociceptive neurons to heating of the tooth contrasted with the responses of the same neurons to pinching and heating of their cutaneous receptive field.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Effect of Spinal Manipulation Thrust Magnitude on Trunk Mechanical Activation Thresholds of Lateral Thalamic Neurons

Windup is characterized as a frequency-dependent increase in the number of evoked action potentials in dorsal horn neurons, in response to electrical stimulation of afferent C-fibers. This phenomenon was first described in the mid-sixties but the core mechanisms behind it still remain elusive. Several factors affecting its dynamics have been identified but the distinction between modulating mechanisms from generating mechanisms is not always clear. Several mechanisms contribute to the excitation of dorsal horn neurons exhibiting windup and one of our main aims was to help making this distinction. The approach presented here relies on mathematical and computational analysis to study the mechanism(s) underlying windup. To our knowledge, this is the first biophysical model addressing the windup mechanism, and one of the few existing models for information processing in the spinal cord’ dorsal horn. From experimentally obtained windup profiles, we extract the time-scale of the facilitation mechanisms which are capable of supporting the characteristics of windup. Guided by these values and using simulations of a biologically realistic compartmental model of a wide dynamic range (WDR) neuron, we are able to assess the contribution of each mechanism for the generation of action potentials windup. We show that the key mechanisms giving rise to windup is the temporal summation of AMPA and NMDA long-lasting post-synaptic responses taking place on top of a membrane potential cumulative depolarization. Calcium activated non-specific cationic currents driven by calcium influx from L-type calcium channels and synaptic currents support this cumulative depolarization and plateau formation in WDR neuron membrane potential. The effects of different non-homogeneous stimulation protocols are explored and their important role in clarifying many aspects of the windup generation is demonstrated. The models were constructed in the well established simulation environment NEURON and are used to produce several predictions which can be tested experimentally.

The dorsal horn of the spinal cord is the first central relay where nociceptive inputs are processed. Based on the expression and modulation of intrinsic electrophysiological properties in in vitro slice preparations, dorsal horn neurones (DHNs) display different discharge patterns (tonic, plateau or rhythmic), which shape the neurone's response to sensory inputs. However, it is unclear whether intrinsic properties play any role in sensory processing in vivo. Using in vivo patch clamp recordings in the adult rat, we here examine whether these intrinsic properties are present, and to what extent they determine the DHN response to natural stimulation. We focused primarily on wide dynamic range neurones in deep laminae. These cells displayed a multicomponent peripheral receptive field, comprising an excitatory firing zone, a low-probability firing fringe, and adjacent inhibitory zones. Deep DHNs presented similar intrinsic properties to those observed in vitro, including plateau potentials. These plateaus, underlying high frequency accelerating discharges and after-discharges, were triggered by mechanical stimulation of the excitatory receptive field. Persistent activities induced by activation of plateau potentials were interrupted by stimulation of peripheral inhibitory zones. Moreover, we show that plateau activation is necessary for the expression of windup in response to repetitive, nociceptive stimulation. Finally, using the spinal nerve ligation model of neuropathy, we demonstrate a significant increase in the proportion of plateau neurones in deep dorsal laminae. Our data, therefore, establish that intrinsic amplification properties are expressed within intact spinal circuits and suggest their involvement in neuropathy-induced hyperexcitability of deep DHNs.