Organic Transistor May Make Biological Circuits and Computing a Reality

February 11, 2019 – Remember bio-neural gel packs in Star Trek? Well, it appears that life is imitating science fiction in the latest announcements from Linkoping University in Sweden. Researchers there have created an organic transistor. consisting of long water-soluble polymer chains.

In a paper entitled, An Evolvable Organic Electrochemical Transistor for Neuromorphic Applications, lead author Jennifer Gerasimov, from the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at the University, along with four colleagues, describes the creation of an electropolymerized transistor that can alter its conductance and structure resembling the neuroplasticity of neurons seen in the human brain. They describe their invention as “a new paradigm of machine learning based on evolvable organic electronics.”

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are seen as important additions to the field of neuromorphic computing. Instead of prefabricated circuitry which requires adjustment and supervision, OECTs have the ability to make new connections in a circuit where none existed before.

In their paper the authors describe how they can incorporate OECTs into a learning circuit to take advantage of their capacity to make new or strengthen existing electronic connections. In this way, the OECT becomes a synaptic device communicating with other circuitry and acting identically to our biological synapses that transmit information between nerve cells.

The use of OECTs with neuromorphic chip technology has the potential to bring the advantages of the organized chaos of our human brains to computing. A neuromorphic system is seen to have significant advantages over existing computing technology because it thinks in ways similar to us. Described as fuzzy logic, neuromorphic computers arrive at solutions through the exploration of multiple scenarios, much the way our brains work.

The OECT was built on a silicon substrate, marrying organic chemistry to more familiar computing materials. And one can imagine chips and circuits with OECTs in the near future becoming the central nervous system of robotic systems that learn through observation requiring little in the way of instruction or training.

OECTs, as described above, can alter their structure allowing them to fulfill different form factor requirements so that computing technology can be put to use in many more places than at present.

In Star Trek, bio-neural gel packs were described as operating by making best guess answers to complex problems, including ones related to space-time temporal anomalies, a favourite theme of the science fiction series. The Star Trek biological circuits could catch a cold. In one episode bio-neural gel packs became infected when a virus from a cheese being made on board contaminated the circuits. The cure for this cold was rather novel. Rather than swapping out infected circuits, they were heated to kill the infection.

And finally, using OECTs may make it possible to create computers that can run on as little energy as what it takes to operate our brains, a mere 15 watts. It seems that in developing the OECT technology that may very well be possible. Simone Fabiano, one of the four authors of the paper, is quoted stating, “Our organic electrochemical transistor can… carry out the work of thousands of normal transistors with…energy consumption that approaches the energy consumed when a human brain transmits signals between two cells.” 

Sounds very promising.