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    Technical feasibility study for production of tailored multielectrode arrays and patterning of arranged neuronal networks
    (San Francisco, CA : Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2018) Schürmann, M.; Shepheard, N.; Frese, N.; Geishendorf, K.; Sudhoff, H.; Gölzhäuser, A.; Rückert, U.; Kaltschmidt, C.; Kaltschmidt, B.; Thomas, A.
    In this manuscript, we first reveal a simple ultra violet laser lithographic method to design and produce plain tailored multielectrode arrays. Secondly, we use the same lithographic setup for surface patterning to enable controlled attachment of primary neuronal cells and help neurite guidance. For multielectrode array production, we used flat borosilicate glass directly structured with the laser lithography system. The multi layered electrode system consists of a layer of titanium coated with a layer of di-titanium nitride. Finally, these electrodes are covered with silicon nitride for insulation. The quality of the custom made multielectrode arrays was investigated by light microscopy, electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The performance was verified by the detection of action potentials of primary neurons. The electrical noise of the custom-made MEA was equal to commercially available multielectrode arrays. Additionally, we demonstrated that structured coating with poly lysine, obtained with the aid of the same lithographic system, could be used to attach and guide neurons to designed structures. The process of neuron attachment and neurite guidance was investigated by light microscopy and charged particle microscopy. Importantly, the utilization of the same lithographic system for MEA fabrication and poly lysine structuring will make it easy to align the architecture of the neuronal network to the arrangement of the MEA electrode.. In future studies, this will lead to multielectrode arrays, which are able to specifically attach neuronal cell bodies to their chemically defined electrodes and guide their neurites, gaining a controlled connectivity in the neuronal network. This type of multielectrode array would be able to precisely assign a signal to a certain neuron resulting in an efficient way for analyzing the maturation of the neuronal connectivity in small neuronal networks.
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    Analogue pattern recognition with stochastic switching binary CMOS-integrated memristive devices
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2020) Zahari, Finn; Pérez, Eduardo; Mahadevaiah, Mamathamba Kalishettyhalli; Kohlstedt, Hermann; Wenger, Christian; Ziegler, Martin
    Biological neural networks outperform current computer technology in terms of power consumption and computing speed while performing associative tasks, such as pattern recognition. The analogue and massive parallel in-memory computing in biology differs strongly from conventional transistor electronics that rely on the von Neumann architecture. Therefore, novel bio-inspired computing architectures have been attracting a lot of attention in the field of neuromorphic computing. Here, memristive devices, which serve as non-volatile resistive memory, are employed to emulate the plastic behaviour of biological synapses. In particular, CMOS integrated resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices are promising candidates to extend conventional CMOS technology to neuromorphic systems. However, dealing with the inherent stochasticity of resistive switching can be challenging for network performance. In this work, the probabilistic switching is exploited to emulate stochastic plasticity with fully CMOS integrated binary RRAM devices. Two different RRAM technologies with different device variabilities are investigated in detail, and their potential applications in stochastic artificial neural networks (StochANNs) capable of solving MNIST pattern recognition tasks is examined. A mixed-signal implementation with hardware synapses and software neurons combined with numerical simulations shows that the proposed concept of stochastic computing is able to process analogue data with binary memory cells. © 2020, The Author(s).