An In-Situ Spatial-Temporal Sequence Detector for Neuromorphic Vision Sensor Empowered by High Density Vertical NAND Storage

Zijian Zhao, Varun Darshana Parekh, Po-Kai Hsu, Yixin Qin, Yiming Song, A. N. M. Nafiul Islam, Ningyuan Cao, Siddharth Joshi, Thomas Kämpfe, Moonyoung Jung, Kwangyou Seo, Kwangsoo Kim, Wanki Kim, Daewon Ha, Sourav Dutta, Abhronil Sengupta, Xiao Gong, Shimeng Yu, Vijaykrishnan Narayanan, Kai Ni

Abstract: Neuromorphic vision sensors require efficient real-time pattern recognition, yet conventional architectures struggle with energy and latency constraints. Here, we present a novel in-situ spatiotemporal sequence detector that leverages vertical NAND storage to achieve massively parallel pattern detection. By encoding each cell with two single-transistor-based multi-level cell (MLC) memory elements, such as ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs), and mapping a pixel's temporal sequence onto consecutive word lines (WLs), we enable direct temporal pattern detection within NAND strings. Each NAND string serves as a dedicated reference for a single pixel, while different blocks store patterns for distinct pixels, allowing large-scale spatial-temporal pattern recognition via simple direct bit-line (BL) sensing, a well-established operation in vertical NAND storage. We experimentally validate our approach at both the cell and array levels, demonstrating that vertical NAND-based detector achieves more than six orders of magnitude improvement in energy efficiency and more than three orders of magnitude reduction in latency compared to conventional CPU-based methods. These findings establish vertical NAND storage as a scalable and energy-efficient solution for next-generation neuromorphic vision processing.