Recent progress on integrated neuromorphic chips

In the post-Moore era, advancing integrated circuits necessitates the development of artificial synaptic devices capable of replicating the functions of human brain with neuromorphic computing, which consists of numerous biological synapses. The neuromorphic chips based on integrated synaptic devices are the promising candidates due to their unique properties, which enable the simulation of human brain and biological synapse plasticity. In recent years, significant progress has been made in the development of optoelectronic synaptic devices and integrated neuromorphic chips. This review summarizes the recent advancements in the integrated synaptic devices, focusing on the structures, integrated technologies and their applications of neuromorphic chips. It discusses the two-terminal and three-terminal configurations of synaptic devices, emphasizing their advantages in simulating biological synapse functions. These advantages include a simple structure, low power consumption, high stability, a wide switching ratio and fast programming speed. Furthermore, the discussion covers the key applications of synaptic devices and integrated neuromorphic chips, such as image recognition, brain-like computing, tactile and vision sensors. For the synaptic-device-based neural networks in image recognition, they have great potential in tactile technology and visual bionics. Other potential applications have also been reviewed and discussed, including intelligent robots, electric skin, human-computer interaction and brain-computer interface, etc. Hence, neuromorphic chips have great promising application prospects, which can significantly promote the development of artificial intelligence and human civilization.