journal article·2026-07-03

Anion‐Engineered Organic Electrochemical Transistors With Multi‐Timescale Synaptic Dynamics for Task‐Adaptive Spiking Neural Networks

Ziyu Wan, Jiakun Xue, Guowei Liu, Jiaqi Ding, Yu Zhang, Zhenqi Gong, Chengyuan Peng, Wenpei Shi, Jiale Su, Shuyu Liu, Jiangnan Xia, Huipeng Chen, Lang Jiang, Lei Liao, Yuanyuan Hu

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Biological synapses process complex temporal information through a diverse range of excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) decay scales. However, conventional neuromorphic hardware often employs homogeneous synaptic models, limiting its capacity for multi‐scale temporal tasks. Here, we present a material‐to‐system co‐design strategy to emulate biological temporal heterogeneity using anion‐engineered organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). By tailoring the anion species within a solid‐state ion‐gel electrolyte utilizing BF 4 − , TFSI − , and MeSO 4 − , we demonstrate precise control over ionic reverse diffusion kinetics, realizing the controllable tuning of synaptic decay constants (from 0.275 s to 1.059 s). These stateful synapses act as intrinsic leaky integrators, embedding short‐term memory directly into the device hardware. We evaluate these devices across diverse spiking neural network (SNN) architectures, including feedforward SNNs and liquid state machines (LSMs), using four benchmark datasets. Our results reveal a critical timescale‐matching effect: fast‐decaying synapses optimize spoken digit recognition (TI‐46, 89.4%), while slow‐decaying synapses are essential for long‐term event integration (DVS Gesture, 88.5%). By transforming synapses from passive transmitters into active physical regulators of network computation, this work provides a versatile hardware platform for constructing task‐adaptive neuromorphic systems capable of processing complex spatiotemporal information.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Advanced Memory and Neural Computing · Conducting polymers and applications · Neural Networks and Reservoir Computing

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

National Key Laboratory of Power Semiconductor and Integration Technology Engineering Research Center of Advanced Semiconductor Technology and Application of Ministry of Education College of Semiconductors (College of Integrated Circuits) Hunan University Changsha China

Key Laboratory for Micro‐Nano Optoelectronic Devices of Ministry of Education School of Physics and Electronics Hunan University Changsha China

Institute of Optoelectronic Display National & Local United Engineering Lab of Flat Panel Display Technology Fuzhou University Fuzhou China

Department of Polymer Materials and Engineering School of Chemical Engineering and Technology Hebei University of Technology Tianjin China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China · National Key Research and Development Program of China · Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province

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