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Reconfigurable mixed-kernel heterojunction transistors for personalized support vector machine classification

Nature Electronics volume 6, pages 862–869 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Advances in algorithms and low-power computing hardware imply that machine learning is of potential use in off-grid medical data classification and diagnosis applications such as electrocardiogram interpretation. However, although support vector machine algorithms for electrocardiogram classification show high classification accuracy, hardware implementations for edge applications are impractical due to the complexity and substantial power consumption needed for kernel optimization when using conventional complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor circuits. Here we report reconfigurable mixed-kernel transistors based on dual-gated van der Waals heterojunctions that can generate fully tunable individual and mixed Gaussian and sigmoid functions for analogue support vector machine kernel applications. We show that the heterojunction-generated kernels can be used for arrhythmia detection from electrocardiogram signals with high classification accuracy compared with standard radial basis function kernels. The reconfigurable nature of mixed-kernel heterojunction transistors also allows for personalized detection using Bayesian optimization. A single mixed-kernel heterojunction device can generate the equivalent transfer function of a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor circuit comprising dozens of transistors and thus provides a low-power approach for support vector machine classification applications.

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Fig. 1: MKH transistor schematic, structure and performance.
Fig. 2: Arrhythmia detection using single-device-generated mixed kernels.
Fig. 3: BO of personalized mixed kernels.
Fig. 4: Mixed-kernel circuit complexity comparison with conventional CMOS.

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Data availability

The data for all the figures in this Article are available via the Harvard Dataverse repository at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/0AAPVD.

Code availability

The code used in this study is available via GitHub at https://github.com/JennyMa0517/mixed-kernel-heterojunction.

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Acknowledgements

Device fabrication was supported by the DOE ASCR and BES Microelectronics Threadwork Program, which is funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, under contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Device testing was supported by the National Science Foundation Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Northwestern University under contract no. DMR-1720139 and by the National Science Foundation Neuroplane Program under contract no. CCF-2106964. SVM analysis and BO were supported by the Army Research Office under contract no. W911NF-21-2-0128. Materials growth and characterization were supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). SNL is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the US DOE National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. This work describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the United States Government. This work made use of the Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB), which has received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF DMR-1720139) and the State of Illinois.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xiaodong Yan, Justin H. Qian, Jiahui Ma.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Xiaodong Yan, Justin H. Qian, Stephanie E. Liu, Matthew P. Bland, Kevin J. Liu, Vinod K. Sangwan & Mark C. Hersam

  2. Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Jiahui Ma, Aoyang Zhang & Han Wang

  3. Biomedical Engineering Department, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Xuechun Wang

  4. Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Han Wang

  5. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Mark C. Hersam

  6. Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Mark C. Hersam

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Contributions

M.C.H., H.W. and V.K.S. conceived the idea. X.Y. and J.H.Q. designed the experiments and performed the device fabrication, measurements and analysis. J.M. performed the SVM analysis and BO. A.Z. and X.W. assisted with the circuit design, analysis and comparison. S.E.L., M.P.B. and K.J.L. synthesized and characterized the MoS2 films. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Vinod K. Sangwan, Han Wang or Mark C. Hersam.

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Nature Electronics thanks Kyusang Lee and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–14, Tables 1–3 and Notes 1 and 2.

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Yan, X., Qian, J.H., Ma, J. et al. Reconfigurable mixed-kernel heterojunction transistors for personalized support vector machine classification. Nat Electron 6, 862–869 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-023-01042-7

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