Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neuromorphic engineering

Superconducting circuits that mimic the brain

Nature Electronics volume 5, pages 627–628 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

A hybrid superconducting optoelectronic circuit could be used to develop spiking neuromorphic networks that operate at the single-quantum level.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems could simplify and accelerate a range of challenging computational tasks, from the recognition of images and sounds to the behavioural control of autonomous vehicles and robotics systems. However, implementation of state-of-the-art computational algorithms on conventional electronic hardware requires a huge computational and power budget. This limits the complexity of the AI systems that can be created and hinders their wider application. One potential solution is neuromorphic computing1,2, which aims to emulate the properties of the human brain in terms of adaptive learning, parallel operation, robustness against component failure, and power efficiency. This goal could be achieved through the realization of a neuromorphic spiking neural network3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Fig. 1: Integration of a superconducting optoelectronic synapse within a spiking neural network.

References

  1. Mead, C. Proc. IEEE 78, 1629–1636 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Monroe, D. Commun. ACM 57, 13–15 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Hendy, H. & Merkel, C. J. Electron. Imaging 31, 010901 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Qiao, N. et al. Front. Neurosci. 9, 141 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kim, T. et al. Front. Computat. Neurosci. 15, 646125 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Shainline, J. M. In 2018 IEEE Int. Conf. Rebooting Computing (ICRC) https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRC.2018.8638599 (IEEE, 2018).

  7. Feldman, J. et al. Nature 569, 208–214 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Robertson, J., Hejda, M., Bueno, J. & Hurtado, A. Sci. Rep. 10, 6098 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Khan, S. et al. Nat. Electron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00840-9 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Morozov, D., Casaburi, A. & Hadfield, R. H. Contemp. Phys. 62, 69–91 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Soloviev, I. I. et al. Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 8, 2689–2710 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Fagaly, R. L. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 77, 10110 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Soloviev, I. I. et al. Phys. Rev. Appl. 16, 044060 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Alessandro Casaburi & Robert H. Hadfield

Authors
  1. Alessandro Casaburi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Robert H. Hadfield
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Alessandro Casaburi or Robert H. Hadfield.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Casaburi, A., Hadfield, R.H. Superconducting circuits that mimic the brain. Nat Electron 5, 627–628 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00855-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00855-2

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing