End-to-End Neuron-inspired Signal Transduction Using Organic Electrochemical Transistors

Jin-Yao Wang; Yue Tian; Yi-Fan Xie; Miao Cheng; Chang-Rui Liu; Jing-Yun Chu; Guo-Qing Xie; Neng Gao; Hao-Fan He; Le-Jing Huang; Ling-Fei Wang; Meng-Meng Li

doi:10.1007/s10118-026-3703-9

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

End-to-End Neuron-inspired Signal Transduction Using Organic Electrochemical Transistors

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2026-08-31

- End-to-End Neuron-inspired Signal Transduction Using Organic Electrochemical Transistors
- End-to-End Neuron-inspired Signal Transduction Using Organic Electrochemical Transistors
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 2026年44卷第9期页码：2953-2962
- Affiliations：
  
  a.Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
  b.School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  c.State Key Laboratory of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
- Author bio：
  
  limengmeng@ucas.ac.cn
- Funds：
  
  This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2025YFF0518300), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. JQ24030), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U25A20481), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and the Self-deployment Project of the State Key Laboratory of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits.;The authors declare no interest conflict.Electronic supplementary information (ESI) is available free of charge in the online version of this article at http://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-026-3703-9.The related data of this paper is data that should not be shared, and can be obtained from the author for reasonable reasons. The author’s contact information: limengmeng@ucas.ac.cn.
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-026-3703-9
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2026-02-26，
  
  录用：2026-04-04，
  
  网络首发：2026-07-09，
  
  纸质出版：2026-09-05
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Wang, J. Y.; Tian, Y.; Xie, Y. F.; Cheng, M.; Liu, C. R.; Chu, J. Y.; Xie, G. Q.; Gao, N.; He, H. F.; Huang, L. J.; Wang, L. F.; Li, M. M. End-to-end neuron-inspired signal transduction using organic electrochemical transistors. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2953–2962

Jin-Yao Wang, Yue Tian, Yi-Fan Xie, et al. End-to-End Neuron-inspired Signal Transduction Using Organic Electrochemical Transistors[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(9): 2953-2962.
Wang, J. Y.; Tian, Y.; Xie, Y. F.; Cheng, M.; Liu, C. R.; Chu, J. Y.; Xie, G. Q.; Gao, N.; He, H. F.; Huang, L. J.; Wang, L. F.; Li, M. M. End-to-end neuron-inspired signal transduction using organic electrochemical transistors. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2026, 44, 2953–2962 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3703-9.

Jin-Yao Wang, Yue Tian, Yi-Fan Xie, et al. End-to-End Neuron-inspired Signal Transduction Using Organic Electrochemical Transistors[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(9): 2953-2962. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-026-3703-9.

摘要

This work demonstrates an end-to-end neuron-inspired signal pathway built entirely from organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs)

where a photosensitive receptor directly drives axonal spiking and synaptic plasticity through analog hardware coupling without algorithmic processing.

Abstract

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) enable high-performance bioelectronics through their efficient ionic-electronic coupling

yet realizing a complete neuronal signal pathway that transduces environmental stimuli into spiking activity and synaptic memory remains a persistent system-level challenge. Here we demonstrate a neuron-inspired signal transduction pathway constructed entirely from OECTs

comprising a signal receptor

a spiking axonal module and a synaptic memory unit. System-level functionality is examined using a hardware-in-the-loop configuration based on direct analog signal transfer. The raw output photocurrent generated by the receptor drives the axonal oscillator

and the resulting voltage spikes subsequently modulate the synaptic device

without any algorithmic scaling or software-based amplification. This direct-drive regime preserves physical signal causality and reveals that the intrinsic signal levels of each functional block are naturally matched to the input requirements of the subsequent stage. Experimentally

receptor-induced spiking activity reliably gives rise to short-term synaptic plasticity under these unassisted conditions. Together

these results demonstrate the inherent inter-stage electrical compatibility of OECT-based devices and establish a rigorous experimental foundation for the future monolithic integration of fully organic neuromorphic systems.

关键词

Keywords

references

Boufidis, D.; Garg, R.; Angelopoulos, E.; Cullen, D. K.; Vitale, F. Bio-inspired electronics: soft, biohybrid, and “living” neural interfaces. Nat. Commun. 2025 , 16 , 1861..

Harikesh, P. C.; Tu, D.; Fabiano, S. Organic electrochemical neurons for neuromorphic perception. Nature Electronics 2024 , 7 , 525−536..

van de Burgt, Y.; Lubberman, E.; Fuller, E. J.; Keene, S. T.; Faria, G. C.; Agarwal, S.; Marinella, M. J.; Alec Talin, A.; Salleo, A. A non-volatile organic electrochemical device as a low-voltage artificial synapse for neuromorphic computing. Nat. Mater. 2017 , 16 , 414−418..

Ro, Y. G.; Chang, Y.; Kim, J.; Lee, S.; Na, S.; Park, C.; Ko, H. Ionic–bionic interfaces: Advancing iontronic strategies for bioelectronic sensing and therapy. Adv. Sci. 2025 , 13 , e13985..

Harikesh, P. C.; Yang, C. Y.; Tu, D.; Gerasimov, J. Y.; Dar, A. M.; Armada-Moreira, A.; Massetti, M.; Kroon, R.; Bliman, D.; Olsson, R.; Stavrinidou, E.; Berggren, M.; Fabiano, S. Organic electrochemical neurons and synapses with ion mediated spiking. Nat. Commun. 2022 , 13 , 901..

Ji, J.; Gao, D.; Wu, H.-Y.; Xiong, M.; Stajkovic, N.; Latte Bovio, C.; Yang, C.-Y.; Santoro, F.; Tu, D.; Fabiano, S. Single-transistor organic electrochemical neurons. Nat. Commun. 2025 , 16 , 4334..

Xia, Y.; Zhang, C.; Xu, Z.; Lu, S.; Cheng, X.; Wei, S.; Yuan, J.; Sun, Y.; Li, Y. Organic iontronic memristors for artificial synapses and bionic neuromorphic computing. Nanoscale 2024 , 16 , 1471−1489..

Cheng, W.; Zhu, Y.; Jiang, G.; Cao, K.; Zeng, S.; Chen, W.; Zhao, D.; Yu, H. Sustainable cellulose and its derivatives for promising biomedical applications. Prog. Mater Sci. 2023 , 138 , 101152..

Rivnay, J.; Inal, S.; Salleo, A.; Owens, R. M.; Berggren, M.; Malliaras, G. G. Organic electrochemical transistors. Nat. Rev. Mater. 2018 , 3 , 17086..

Khodagholy, D.; Rivnay, J.; Sessolo, M.; Gurfinkel, M.; Leleux, P.; Jimison, L. H.; Stavrinidou, E.; Herve, T.; Sanaur, S.; Owens, R. M.; Malliaras, G. G. High transconductance organic electrochemical transistors. Nat Commun 2013 , 4 , 2133..

Li, L.; Chen, W.; Kong, X.-Y.; Wen, L. Nanofluidic neuromorphic iontronics: a nexus for biological signal transduction. Iontronics 2026 , 2 , 4..

Li, Y.; Su, K.; Chen, H.; Zou, X.; Wang, C.; Man, H.; Liu, K.; Xi, X.; Li, T. Research progress of neural synapses based on memristors. Electronics 2023 , 12 , 3298..

Indiveri, G.; Liu, S. C. Memory and information processing in neuromorphic systems. Proc. IEEE 2015 , 103 , 1379−1397..

Mead, C. Neuromorphic electronic systems. Proc. IEEE 1990 , 78 , 1629−1636..

Yao, Y.; Pankow, R. M.; Huang, W.; Wu, C.; Gao, L.; Cho, Y.; Chen, J.; Zhang, D.; Sharma, S.; Liu, X.; Wang, Y.; Peng, B.; Chung, S.; Cho, K.; Fabiano, S.; Ye, Z.; Ping, J.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. An organic electrochemical neuron for a neuromorphic perception system. PNAS 2025 , 122 , e2414879122..

Pickett, M. D.; Stanley Williams, R. Sub-100 fj and sub-nanosecond thermally driven threshold switching in niobium oxide crosspoint nanodevices. Nanotechnology 2012 , 23 , 215202..

Wang, L.; Jiao, Y.; Zhang, H.; Liu, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Wu, P.; Xiao, K. Neuromorphic iontronic devices based on soft ionic conductors. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2026 , 55 , 299−335..

Chua, L. Memristor, hodgkin–huxley, and edge of chaos. Nanotechnology 2013 , 24 , 383001..

Yang, J. J.; Strukov, D. B.; Stewart, D. R. Memristive devices for computing. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2013 , 8 , 13−24..

[Wang, Y.; Shan, W.; Li, H.; Lei, X.; Chang, T.; El-Atab, N.; Lei, T.; Inal, S. A retina-inspired organic iono-optoelectronic synapse. Adv Mater 2025, e14620..

Laswick, Z.; Wu, X.; Surendran, A.; Zhou, Z.; Ji, X.; Matrone, G. M.; Leong, W. L.; Rivnay, J. Tunable anti-ambipolar vertical bilayer organic electrochemical transistor enable neuromorphic retinal pathway. Nat. Commun. 2024 , 15 , 6309..

Kim, D.-H.; Lee, J.; Kim, Y.; Yoo, H.; Lee, E. K. Enhanced synaptic behavior of neuromorphic device based on organic electrochemical transistors by adding aminosilane. Org. Electron. 2024 , 131 , 107076..

Bisquert, J.; Tessler, N. A one-transistor organic electrochemical self-sustained oscillator model for neuromorphic networks. Newton 2025 , 1 , 100207..

Kuang, Y.; Yao, T.; Deng, S.; Dong, J.; Ye, G.; Zhang, L.; Shao, S.; Zhu, Z.; Liu, J.; Liu, J. Matching p- and n-type organic electrochemical transistor performance enables a record high-gain complementary inverter. Adv Mater 2025 , 37 , e2417691..

Zhou, Z.; He, Q.; Tang, C. G.; Hou, K.; Yang, J.; Kousseff, C. J.; McCulloch, I.; Leong, W. L. Multifunctional electronics enabled by ion-based organic electrochemical transistor with large threshold voltage tunability window. ACS Nano 2025 , 19 , 37865−37878..

Yadav, Y.; Singh, S. P. Ionic liquid gated unipolar inverters with tunable switching voltage and excellent noise margin. J. Mater. Chem. C 2023 , 11 , 1021−1028..

Takeda, Y.; Hayasaka, K.; Shiwaku, R.; Yokosawa, K.; Shiba, T.; Mamada, M.; Kumaki, D.; Fukuda, K.; Tokito, S. Fabrication of ultra-thin printed organic tft cmos logic circuits optimized for low-voltage wearable sensor applications. Sci. Rep. 2016 , 6 , 25714..

[Travaglini, L.; Fidanovski, K.; Mawad, D. Logic circu its featuring organic electrochemical transistors: what is the logic behind oects in logic. Adv. Sci . 2025, 12 , e14448..

Lu, D.; Chen, H. Solid-state organic electrochemical transistors (oects) based on gel electrolytes for biosensors and bioelectronics. J. Mater. Chem. A 2025 , 13 , 136−157..

Zhu, Z.; Wang, X.; Wang, D.; Gu, Y.; Fan, W.; Pang, Y.; Guo, Z.; Li, Y. Fine-grained ecg monitoring based on stretchable organic electrochemical transistors with anisotropic gel electrolytes for biometric identification. ACS Sens 2025 , 10 , 9423−9431..

Tian, Z.; Zhao, Z.; Yan, F. Organic electrochemical transistor in wearable bioelectronics: profiles, applications, and integration. Wear. Electron. 2024 , 1 , 1−25..

Huang, W.; Chen, J.; Yao, Y.; Zheng, D.; Ji, X.; Feng, L.-W.; Moore, D.; Glavin, N. R.; Xie, M.; Chen, Y.; Pankow, R. M.; Surendran, A.; Wang, Z.; Xia, Y.; Bai, L.; Rivnay, J.; Ping, J.; Guo, X.; Cheng, Y.; Marks, T. J.; Facchetti, A. Vertical organic electrochemical transistors for complementary circuits. Nature 2023 , 613 , 496−502..

Zhong, Y.; Koklu, A.; Villalva, D. R.; Zhang, Y.; Hernandez, L. H.; Moser, M.; Hallani, R. K.; McCulloch, I.; Baran, D.; Inal, S. An organic electrochemical transistor integrated photodetector for high quality photoplethysmogram signal acquisition. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023 , 33 , 2211479..

Sun, S.; You, Z.; Ji, Y.; Li, Y.; Feng, Y.; Liu, S.; Cao, J.; Liu, Y.; Yu, Z.; Wu, T. Application and challenges of organic electrochemical transistors in neuromorphic computing: bionic synapse and multi-mode integration. J. Mater. Chem. C 2025 , 13 , 19125−19148..

van de Burgt, Y.; Melianas, A.; Keene, S. T.; Malliaras, G.; Salleo, A. Organic electronics for neuromorphic computing. Nat. Electron. 2018 , 1 , 386−397..

Lei, P.; He, Z.; Cao, L.; Zhang, M.; Zheng, C.; Lin, H.; Du, X.; Tao, S. Multifunctional organic artificial optoelectronic synapses for neuromorphic computing and a weak-light-sensitive visual system. J. Mater. Chem. C 2025 , 13 , 11707−11717..

Mao, Y.; Choi, Y.; Qian, C.; Roe, D. G.; Kim, S.; Liu, Y.; Chen, D.; Tang, D.; Sun, J.; Cho, J. H. Multimodal in-sensor computing with dual-phase organic synapses for wearable fitnes s monitoring. Adv. Mater. 2026 , 38 , e13904..

Xiang, K.; Song, J.; Liu, H.; Chen, J.; Yan, F. Organic electrochemical transistors for neuromorphic devices and applications. Adv. Mater. 2025 , 13 , e15532..

Sarkar, T.; Lieberth, K.; Pavlou, A.; Frank, T.; Mailaender, V.; McCulloch, I.; Blom, P. W. M.; Torricelli, F.; Gkoupidenis, P. An organic artificial spiking neuron for in situ neuromorphic sensing and biointerfacing. Nat. Electron. 2022 , 5 , 774−783..

浏览量

Downloads

CSCD

文章被引用时，请邮件提醒。

Submit

工具集

关联资源

Sliding Dynamics of Ring Chain on a Rod-Coil Block Copolymer in Rotaxane

Circularly Polarized Luminescence Based on Helical Polymers: Structure-Property Relationships and Regulation Mechanisms

Experimental Investigation of Graphene and TiO2 Reinforced Poly(vinyl alcohol)-based Fiber Metal Laminates

Improvements of Hydrophobicity and Toughness of Epoxy Coatings Modified with Hydroxyl-terminated Fluororubber

Pyrimidoisoindigo-based Polymers for Ambipolar Charge Transport