Ternary Logic Circuit and Neural Network Integration via Small Molecule-Based Antiambipolar Vertical Electrochemical Transistor

Abstract

Circuits based on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) have great potential in the fields of biosensors and artificial neural computation due to their biocompatibility and neural similarity. However, the integration of OECT-based circuits lags far behind other emerging electronics. Here, ternary inverters based on antiambipolar vertical OECTs (vOECTs) and their integration with the establishment of neural networks are demonstrated. Specifically, by adopting a small molecule (t-gdiPDI) as the channel of vOECT, high antiambipolar performance, with current density of 33.9 ± 2.1 A cm^-2 under drain voltage of 0.1 V, peak voltage ≈0 V, low driving voltage < ± 0.6 V, and current on/off ratio > 10⁶, are realized. Consequently, vertically stacked ternary circuits based solely on OECTs are constructed for the first time, showing three distinct logical states and high integration density. By further developing inverter array as the internal fundamental units of ternary weight network hardware circuits for ternary processing and computation, it demonstrates excellent data classification and recognition capabilities. This work demonstrates the possibility of constructing multi-valued logic circuits by OECTs and promotes a new strategy for high-density integration and multivalued computing systems based on organic circuits.

Keywords: antiambipolar; neural network; organic electrochemical transistor; small‐molecule mixed ionic–electronic conductors; ternary inverter.