Artificial afferent neurons in the sensory nervous system inspired by biology have enormous potential for efficiently perceiving and processing environmental information. However, the previously reported artificial afferent neurons suffer from two prominent challenges: considerable power consumption and limited scalability efficiency. Herein, addressing these challenges, a bioinspired artificial thermal afferent neuron based on a N-doped SiTe ovonic threshold switching (OTS) device is presented for the first time. The engineered OTS device shows remarkable uniformity and robust endurance, ensuring the reliability and efficacy of the artificial afferent neurons. A substantially decreased leakage current of the SiTe OTS device by nitrogen doping results in ultra-low power consumption less than 0.3 nJ per spike for artificial afferent neurons. The inherent temperature response exhibited by N-doped SiTe OTS materials allows us to construct a highly compact artificial thermal afferent neuron over a wide temperature range. An edge detection task is performed to further verify its thermal perceptual computing function. Our work provides an insight into OTS-based artificial afferent neurons for electronic skin and sensory neurorobotics.

中文翻译：

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用于热传感器内计算的基于 Ovonic 阈值切换的人工传入神经元

受生物学启发的感觉神经系统中的人工传入神经元在有效感知和处理环境信息方面具有巨大的潜力。然而，先前报道的人工传入神经元面临两个突出的挑战：相当大的功耗和有限的可扩展效率。为了解决这些挑战，本文首次提出了一种基于 N 掺杂 SiTe ovonic 阈值开关 (OTS) 器件的仿生人工热传入神经元。工程化的 OTS 设备表现出卓越的均匀性和强大的耐用性，确保了人工传入神经元的可靠性和有效性。通过氮掺杂，SiTe OTS 器件的漏电流大幅降低，使得人工传入神经元的超低功耗低于每个尖峰 0.3 nJ。 N 掺杂 SiTe OTS 材料表现出的固有温度响应使我们能够在较宽的温度范围内构建高度紧凑的人工热传入神经元。进行边缘检测任务，进一步验证其热感知计算功能。我们的工作深入了解用于电子皮肤和感觉神经机器人的基于 OTS 的人工传入神经元。