A nanoimprinted artificial engram device

Abstract

At present, mainstream neuromorphic hardware is based on artificial synapses; however, an engram, instead of a synapse, has recently been confirmed as the basic unit of memory, which verifies the engram theory proposed by Richard Semon in 1904. Here, we demonstrate an artificial engram device based on a nanoimprinted curable resin. The variation in the relative diffraction efficiency based on the asymmetric reversible topological change of the nanoimprinted resin enables the device to meet all the requirements for artificial engrams, including synaptic plasticity, long memory storage time, asymmetric memorizing–forgetting behaviour and measurable changes and responses. On this basis, we demonstrate the concept of realizing memory formation, memory manipulation and implantation, and memory consolidation using our artificial engram device in comparison with its biological counterpart.