Quantum Dot Phototransistor for Neuromorphic Sensor

Nature publishes a paper "A flexible ultrasensitive optoelectronic sensor array for neuromorphic vision systems" by Qian-Bing Zhu, Bo Li, Dan-Dan Yang, Chi Liu, Shun Feng, Mao-Lin Chen, Yun Sun, Ya-Nan Tian, Xin Su, Xiao-Mu Wang, Song Qiu, Qing-Wen Li, Xiao-Ming Li, Hai-Bo Zeng, Hui-Ming Cheng & Dong-Ming Sun from Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei University of Science and Technology of China, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shenyang Northeastern University, Nanjing University, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, and Tsinghua University.

"The challenges of developing neuromorphic vision systems inspired by the human eye come not only from how to recreate the flexibility, sophistication, and adaptability of animal systems, but also how to do so with computational efficiency and elegance. Similar to biological systems, these neuromorphic circuits integrate functions of image sensing, memory and processing into the device, and process continuous analog brightness signal in real-time. High-integration, flexibility and ultra-sensitivity are essential for practical artificial vision systems that attempt to emulate biological processing. Here, we present a flexible optoelectronic sensor array of 1024 pixels using a combination of carbon nanotubes and perovskite quantum dots as active materials for an efficient neuromorphic vision system. The device has an extraordinary sensitivity to light with a responsivity of 5.1e7 A/W and a specific detectivity of 2e16 Jones, and demonstrates neuromorphic reinforcement learning by training the sensor array with a weak light pulse of 1 μW/cm2."