Neuromorphic computing uses basic principles inspired by the brain to design circuits that perform artificial intelligence tasks with superior energy efficiency. Traditional approaches have been limited by the energy area of artificial neurons and synapses realized with conventional electronic devices.
In recent years, multiple groups have demonstrated that spintronic nanodevices, which exploit the magnetic as well as electrical properties of electrons, can increase the energy efficiency and decrease the area of these circuits. Among the variety of spintronic devices that have been used, magnetic tunnel junctions play a prominent role because of their established compatibility with standard integrated circuits and their multifunctionality.
Magnetic tunnel junctions can serve as synapses, storing connection weights, functioning as local, nonvolatile digital memory or as continuously varying resistances. As nano-oscillators, they can serve as neurons, emulating the oscillatory behavior of sets of biological neurons. As superparamagnets, they can do so by emulating the random spiking of biological neurons. Magnetic textures like domain walls or skyrmions can be configured to function as neurons through their non-linear dynamics.
Several implementations of neuromorphic computing with spintronic devices demonstrate their promise in this context. Used as variable resistance synapses, magnetic tunnel junctions perform pattern recognition in an associative memory. As oscillators, they perform spoken digit recognition in reservoir computing and when coupled together, classification of signals. As superparamagnets, they perform population coding and probabilistic computing.
Simulations demonstrate that arrays of nanomagnets and films of skyrmions can operate as components of neuromorphic computers. While these examples show the unique promise of spintronics in this field, there are several challenges to scaling up, including the efficiency of coupling between devices and the relatively low ratio of maximum to minimum resistances in the individual devices.
figure 1.
(a) Magnetic tunnel junctions for memory applications. A magnetic junction consists of two ferromagnetic layers (gray) separated by an insulating layer (blue) with the magnetization of one layer fixed and that of the other either parallel (low resistance) or antiparallel (high resistance) to it.
(b) Cross-bar array of magnetic tunnel junctions for high density storage (Magnetic Random Access Memory). The resistance of a particular tunnel junction is measured by activating the appropriate word line (red) allowing conduction between the bottom bit line and the top sense line (both blue). The alignment of the magnetization can be switched by passing sufficient currents through the device.
(c) Associative memory. (i) Handwritten digits from the MNIST dataset used for training the associative memory. (ii) Sample test input after training. (iii) Output of trained network from the test input showing successful association.
Figure 2. Neuromorphic computing with Spin Torque nano-oscillators.
(a) Schematic spin torque nano-oscillator. When designed appropriately, the free layer magnetization of a tunnel junction precesses when a dc current is passed through it. Because of the oscillating magnetoresistance, a fixed input current gives an oscillating voltage across the junction.
(b) Reservoir computing with a spin torque nano-oscillator. Using time multiplexing in pre- and post-processing, a single spin torque nano-oscillator gives state of the art performance as a reservoir in a reservoir computing scheme.
(c) Schematic use of coupled nano-oscillators for vowel recognition. The input is represented by the frequencies of two microwaves applied through a stripline to the oscillators. The natural frequencies of the oscillators are tuned by dc bias currents through the devise. These can be tuned so that the synchronization pattern between the oscillators corresponds to the desired output.
Figure 3
(a) Schematic skyrmion structure. The magnetization direction of a single skyrmion is schematically given both by the directions of the arrows and the color coding, ranging from blue for magnetization up, through white for in-plane magnetization directions, to red for magnetization down. (b) Simulated skyrmion assembly. A reservoir computing scheme based on skyrmions in a random potential makes use of the distortions of the assembly due to current flow to provide the necessary non-linearity and memory.
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