Abstract

Short Term Plasticity (STP) is fundamental for information processing and computational efficiency within biological neural systems. STP has previously been implemented at the circuit level using complex designs with high power and area overheads, resulting in designs that are not scalable in neuromorphic systems. Electrochemical random-access memory (ECRAM) devices naturally exhibit STP behavior through volatile ion dynamics, creating transient conductance modulation.  In previous ECRAM implementations, this behavior was seen as an undesirable artifact of device programming when implemented as a Compute in Memory (CIM) device; however, this thesis proposes leveraging the volatile  behavior to instead act as a computational resource.  Through a device-circuit co-design, this work introduces a tunable pulse-width Leaky Integrate and Fire (LIF) neuron circuit interfacing with an ECRAM based synapse to achieve activity dependent conductance modulation. This implementation introduces two key STP behaviors with negligible additional circuit overhead: (1) synaptic facilitation and (2) intrinsic excitability modulation. Validated in simulation, these STP behaviors demonstrate how volatile ECRAM behavior can serve as a primitive for temporal computation within neuromorphic circuits without requiring additional circuit overhead.

Publication Date

4-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Electrical Engineering (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering, Department of

College

Kate Gleason College of Engineering

Advisor

Teju Das

Advisor/Committee Member

Cory Merkel

Advisor/Committee Member

Ke Xu

Comments

This thesis has been embargoed. The full-text will be available on or around 5/3/2027.

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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