CMOL CrossNets: Possible Neuromorphic Nanoelectronic Circuits

Hybrid “CMOL” integrated circuits, combining CMOS subsystem with nanowire crossbars and simple two-terminal nanodevices, promise to extend the exponential Moore-Law development of microelectronics into the sub-10-nm range. We are developing neuromorphic network (“CrossNet”) architectures for this future technology, in which neural cell bodies are implemented in CMOS, nanowires are used as axons and dendrites, while nanodevices (bistable latching switches) are used as elementary synapses. We have shown how CrossNets may be trained to perform pattern recovery and classification despite the limitations imposed by the CMOL hardware. Preliminary estimates have shown that CMOL CrossNets may be extremely dense (~10 cells per cm) and operate approximately a million times faster than biological neural networks, at manageable power consumption. In Conclusion, we discuss in brief possible short-term and long-term applications of the emerging technology.