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대학/대학원
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연구/산학
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대학생활
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입학/취업
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커뮤니티
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대학소개
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개교 80주년
연구/산학
PKNU Research 1000
New Beginning, New Inspiration
Pukyong National University, the first university in Busan,always paves a new path through specialized and converged research to lead the era of the fourth indutrial revolution.
| Eun-Kwang Lee | Design Strategy Proposed for Gate Electrodes in Brain-Inspired Devices | |||
| 작성자 | 대외홍보센터 | 작성일 | 2026-11-03 |
| 조회수 | 23 | ||
| Eun-Kwang Lee | Design Strategy Proposed for Gate Electrodes in Brain-Inspired Devices | |||||
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대외홍보센터 |  |
2026-11-03 |  |
23 |
Pukyong National University Professor Eun-Kwang Lee’s Team Proposes Gate Electrode Design Strategies, a ‘Hidden Key’ to Brain-Inspired Devices
- Research Professor Yong-Hee Kim and Professor Eun-Kwang Lee collaborate with researchers from Gyeongsang National University, Hanyang University, the University of Seoul, Taiwan, and Italy
- Comprehensive review of strategies for controlling the memory characteristics of artificial synapses through gate electrode design
- Findings published in Advanced Functional Materials, a world-renowned journal in materials science
A research team led by Professor Eun-Kwang Lee of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pukyong National University, in collaboration with domestic and international researchers, has published a systematic review of strategies for controlling memory characteristics through gate electrodes, a previously overlooked component of brain-inspired organic electronic devices.
Research Professor Yong-Hee Kim of Pukyong National University and Professor Woo-Jo Kim of Gyeongsang National University contributed as co-first authors, while Professor Eun-Kwang Lee, Professor Ho-Cheon Yoo of Hanyang University, and Professor Shin-Hyung Lee of the University of Seoul served as corresponding authors. The international research team also included Professor Wen-Ya Lee of National Taipei University of Technology in Taiwan and Professor Fabrizio Torricelli of the University of Brescia in Italy.
The paper, titled “Gate Electrode Engineering for Tunable Synaptic Plasticity in Organic Electrochemical Neuromorphic Devices,” was published on October 6 in Advanced Functional Materials (IF: 19.9), a world-renowned journal in materials science.
Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are gaining attention as low-power artificial intelligence hardware capable of learning and memory functions because their signal transmission mechanism, involving the movement of both ions and electrons, resembles that of synapses in the brain. Until now, research has primarily focused on the semiconductor layer through which current flows, while the gate electrode, which receives input signals, has largely been regarded as a simple input terminal.
The research team focused on the fact that gate electrodes directly control the injection, retention, and removal of ions. They systematically reviewed recent studies across three key aspects: gate electrode materials, structures and geometries, and interfaces with electrolytes, demonstrating that gate electrode design alone can enable the transition from short-term to long-term memory. The team also compared various materials, ranging from metals and carbon to conductive polymers and metal？organic frameworks (MOFs), while presenting applications in federated learning and reservoir computing, as well as challenges associated with large-area integration.
According to the research team, capacitance, which refers to an electrode’s ability to accommodate and store electrical charge through ion interactions, varies significantly depending on the material, and controlling it can alter memory retention times. In particular, carbon electrodes with large surface areas and high porosity can be used to tune characteristics between short-term and long-term memory, while conductive polymer electrodes capable of storing ions internally are advantageous for achieving long-term memory characteristics. Furthermore, porous materials such as MOFs can selectively allow certain ions to pass through depending on their pore size. This suggests the potential to regulate memory characteristics not only through the electrode’s charge storage capacity but also by controlling the selective transport of ions.
This study is significant in that it expands the perspective of brain-inspired device design from semiconductor layers to gate electrodes. The findings are expected to provide valuable design guidelines for developing low-power AI semiconductors and bioelectronic devices.
Professor Eun-Kwang Lee said, “This study demonstrates that gate electrodes, which have long been regarded as supporting components, can play a central role in designing the memory characteristics of brain-inspired devices. Understanding the fundamental principles governing ion movement at interfaces is the starting point for developing next-generation AI semiconductors.”
This research was supported by the 2026 Outstanding Early-Career Research Program (Type B) of the National Research Foundation of Korea (RS-2026-25498529) and the 2026 Global Collaborative Research Support Program of Pukyong National University (202607920001).
