Spintronic Devices For Ultra-Low Power Neuromorphic Computation

Emerging spin-transfer torque mechanisms in devices like vertical spin valves, lateral spin valves, domain wall motion based devices, spin-torque oscillators and spin-orbit torque based devices have opened up new possibilities of mimicking various neural and synaptic functionalities by the underlying device physics. In this paper, we review various spintronic device structures that can provide a compact and area-efficient implementation of artificial neurons and synapses. Neuromorphic architectures based on such spintronic devices can potentially provide similar to 10 - 100 x lower energy consumption in comparison to a baseline CMOS implementation.