Perpendicular neuromorphic channels facilitate lateral inhibition for tactile location

Lateral inhibition refers to the inhibition of neurons as caused by excitation of its neighboring neurons, which helps increase the contrast and sharpness of touch, and pinpoint exact touch position. However, such important operational logic has not yet been realized in neuromorphic sensing systems at the device level. Herein, we demonstrate a cross-channel synaptic transistor (CST) that possesses two perpendicularly-integrated channels with separate source and drain electrodes but the same geometrical middle points. The architecture is fabricated by electro-hydrodynamically printed indium zinc oxide (IZO) nanowires with digital control. When one channel is excited, it attenuates the charge-carrier transport in its perpendicular channel, fundamentally realizing the lateral inhibition behavior on the device level, forming a competitive charge-transport mechanism. The device was successfully applied to precise localization of the touch point on an electronic skin, and the position can be visually displayed simultaneously. The special device architecture can be used to generate a lateral-inhibition-encryption (LIE) key that encrypts Morse code, which ensures 100% accurate decryption by traversal decryption of all letters and encryption types. This work demonstrates a new strategy to emulate bioinspired operation logic on device level for the construction of future bioinspired electronics.