Abstract:
Increasing workloads of deep learning problems and a slowdown in transistor scaling progress have fueled interest in energy-efficient analog hardware accelerators in recent years. The unit device of an analog processor is a programmable nonvolatile resistor. Given that computation in the analog domain relies on intrinsic physical properties, these devices need to satisfy strict requirements to avoid accuracy degradation. To date, a device concept that meets all specs has yet to be identified. Recently, we have demonstrated a new class of three-terminal programmable resistor based on proton intercalation into a metal oxide channel using Phosphosilicate Glass (PSG) as electrolyte. Protons are attractive because their small radius and light mass promise high speed and energy-efficient operation. Unlike previous electrolytes used in protonic programmable resistors, PSG is an eminently CMOS- and BEOL-compatible material. Our Pd/PSG/WO3 nanoscale devices exhibit excellent characteristics in terms of high operation speed (5 ns/pulse), high energy efficiency (~fJ/pulse), many (1000) nonvolatile conductance states across a large dynamic range (10), linear and symmetric modulation, and high endurance. This talk will describe the device design and fabrication and its electrical characteristics. We will also show evidence of impulse-like non-volatile conductance modulation with nanosecond-range pulses without any visible equilibration dynamics.
Bio:
Jesús A. del Alamo is the Donner Professor and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He obtained a Telecommunications Engineer degree from Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain) and MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In 1985 he joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone LSI Laboratories in Japan and since 1988 he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2013 until 2019, he served as Director of the Microsystems Technology Laboratories at MIT. His current research interests are focused on nanoelectronics based on compound semiconductors and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors and novel ionic and ferroelectric devices for artificial intelligence accelerators. Prof. del Alamo was an NSF Presidential Young Investigator. He is a member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Physical Society and the Materials Research Society. He is the recipient of the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award in Emerging Research Devices, the Semiconductor Research Corporation Technical Excellence Award, the IEEE Electron Devices Society Education Award, the University Researcher Award by Semiconductor Industry Association and Semiconductor Research Corporation, the IPRM Award and the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Electron Device Letters. He is the author of “Integrated Microelectronic Devices: Physics and Modeling” (Pearson 2017, 880 pages), a rigorous and up to date description of semiconductor physics, transistors and other contemporary microelectronic devices.
https://mtlsites.mit.edu/users/alamo/