Ugo Bruno, Matteo Farronato, Alberto Salleo, Simone Fabiano, Francesca Santoro
{"title":"Figures of merit for neuromorphic devices through biological emulation efficacy","authors":"Ugo Bruno, Matteo Farronato, Alberto Salleo, Simone Fabiano, Francesca Santoro","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00321-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00321-7","url":null,"abstract":"Neuromorphic engineering continuously draws inspiration from features of the nervous system, such as synaptic computation, spiking communication, dendritic processing and neuroplasticity. Its growing interest led to the diversification of neuromorphic architectures, complicating cross-platform comparison due to the lack of unified metrics and figures of merit. In this Review, we identify key metrics for neuromorphic devices and architectures, assess their potential applications and create meaningful comparison. Different levels of biological computation are identified, and their artificial counterparts are evaluated by their emulated function. The key metrics and specific strengths of different architectures are then presented via bioplausibility, energy efficiency or scalability, providing a unified framework for evaluating emerging neuromorphic technologies and guiding their optimization for targeted applications. By establishing common evaluation criteria, this Review supports the design of next-generation neuromorphic systems and accelerates progress towards real-world, low-power computing solutions. This Review posits biological relevance as key metrics for evaluating neuromorphic devices. These metrics provide a structured framework to navigate the growing diversity of devices and platforms, guiding the optimization of design trade-offs according to the targeted application.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 9","pages":"579-595"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Autonomous driving chips","authors":"Qiujing Lu, Sihong Wu, Yifan Liu, Ziwei Huang, Yue Zhou, Boyi Dong, Tianyi Zhang, Linsen Li, Kaichen Zhu, Haowen Shu, Haikang Diao, Kaiteng Tan, Yu Liu, Xudong Zheng, Hongkai Ning, Yi Wan, Xuanhan Wang, Runze Yuan, Hongyan Sang, Xiaodong Yan, Ling Wang, Tong Dang, Aijia Yao, Zhien Wang, Aaron D. Franklin, Zhengshuai Wang, Jeffrey H. Lang, Jinchi Han, Xiyuan Tang, Kenan Zhang, Tilo H. Yang, Peng Wu, Jiangtao Wang, Qinghua Huang, Jiajia Sun, Jiefu Chen, Xuqing Wu, Yuanjin Zheng, Lin Xu, Yunyue Zhu, Jian Wang, Ruixuan Chen, Meng-Chi Chen, Xingjun Wang, Xiang Cheng, Biao Qin, Kaihui Liu, Hailin Peng, Mario Lanza, Saptarshi Das, Lain-Jong Li, Xiangfeng Duan, Vwani Roychowdhury, Vladimir Bulović, Tomás Palacios, Jing Kong, Shuo Feng, Lian-Mao Peng, Jianfeng Jiang","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00319-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00319-1","url":null,"abstract":"The automobile is undergoing a dramatic transformation — from a conventional mode of transportation to an intelligent, interconnected terminal within the Internet of Everything. As driving functions progressively shift from human drivers to onboard AI systems, vehicles are becoming intelligent agents operating in complex, safety-critical environments. In this transition, autonomous driving chips are emerging as a key determinant of whether safe, scalable and commercially viable autonomy can be achieved. We argue that the future of autonomous driving will be shaped by a widening gap between rapidly growing computational demands and the physical limits of conventional chip technologies. Closing this gap requires a paradigm shift from isolated hardware or software innovation towards holistic hardware–software codesign. This Perspective examines how increasingly stringent requirements for safety, real-time intelligence and cost are reshaping the design of autonomous driving chips, and discusses the challenges of sustaining performance growth as conventional scaling approaches slow down. Particular attention is given to emerging opportunities in advanced materials, logic and memory technologies, heterogeneous monolithic three-dimensional integration and domain-specific architectures. By connecting developments across semiconductor technology and autonomous driving algorithms, we discuss the key technological bottlenecks, design trade-offs and cross-disciplinary innovations that are likely to shape the next generation of intelligent computing platforms for autonomous systems. This Perspective examines how increasingly stringent requirements for safety, real-time intelligence and cost are reshaping the design of autonomous driving chips, and discusses the challenges of sustaining performance growth as conventional scaling approaches slow down.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 9","pages":"596-614"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Building digital twin brains at the limits of measurement","authors":"Ruohan Zhang \u0000 (, ), Yubo Hou \u0000 (, ), Wenlian Lu \u0000 (, ), Jianfeng Feng \u0000 (, )","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00320-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00320-8","url":null,"abstract":"The brain remains among the hardest systems in biology to model. Whole-brain simulations, neuromorphic systems and predictive surrogates are among the main approaches, but each captures isolated aspects of brain function rather than a specific living brain that can be updated over time. Digital twin brains (DTBs) reframe the goal as individualized, data-coupled models for which structure and dynamics are constrained by subject-specific measurements. In this Review, we argue that the fidelity a DTB can reach is set by the resolution, completeness and updatability of those measurements, not by neuron count — a measurement-defined emulation scale. On this scale, today’s DTBs are best understood as partial, simulation-based counterparts: they reconstruct structure and reproduce dynamics, yet persistent updating, closed-loop interaction and embodiment remain long-term goals. Building DTBs at biological scale will depend as much on data integration, validation and governance as on raw computation. DTBs are therefore emerging as instruments for health care, discovery and brain-inspired artificial intelligence. Digital twin brains aim to mirror a living brain in software, updating as new measurements arrive. This Review argues that a model’s accuracy is limited by what we can measure, not by sheer scale, and charts a path from reconstructing brain structure to adaptive, interactive models.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 9","pages":"551-563"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"One-chip-like datacenter design enabled by CXL-based scale-up fabrics","authors":"Myoungsoo Jung, Hyein Woo, Junhee Kim, Jinwoo Baek, Kyungkuk Nam, Eunjee Na, Hyunkyu Choi, Seonghyeon Jang, Hanjin Choi, Kayvon Shakeri, Han Wang, Miryeong Kwon","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00315-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00315-5","url":null,"abstract":"Large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) workloads expose the structural limits of network-based distributed systems relying on software to coordinate separate devices. As AI models scale across hundreds or thousands of accelerators, latency spread increasingly limits system-wide execution. In this Review, we introduce a one-chip-like standpoint for understanding how datacenter infrastructures are evolving to support AI workloads. Tightly coupled AI computation over a distributed environment defines the requirements for extending chip-level execution rules across physically separated resources. Compute express link (CXL) serves as a basis for chip-like execution by enabling memory pooling and sharing under fabric. However, realizing predictable execution with CXL-based fabric requires more architectural considerations than standard-defined functionalities. It requires hardware mechanisms that control the sources of latency variability along traversal paths and hierarchical deployment structures that organize resources in chip-like arrangements. Looking forward, emerging interconnect technologies, including optical links and CXL-over-optics, can further extend one-chip-like execution across broader physical domains. This Review highlights how one-chip-like datacenter extends chip-level semantics to rack scale by combining compute express link fabrics with hardware mechanisms, thereby stabilizing latency variability along traversal paths to enable large-scale AI systems to operate cohesively beyond electrical limits.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 9","pages":"564-578"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910043","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhancing RF-to-optical conversion with dual-resonance photonic integration","authors":"Rachel Won","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00324-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00324-4","url":null,"abstract":"Synergistic integration of a resonant RF antenna and a microring electro-optic modulator breaks the size–efficiency trade-off in monolithic photonic RF receivers, supporting diverse communications, radar and electronic warfare applications.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 8","pages":"473-473"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dual-pathway artificial skin for human-like touch and reasoning","authors":"Miranda L. Vinay","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00323-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00323-5","url":null,"abstract":"A biomimetic tactile system combines spiking neural networks and large language models to unite reflex-like perception with cognitive reasoning. By processing touch through dual pathways, the approach enables robots to recognize, interpret and respond to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli efficiently.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 8","pages":"474-474"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xuan Dong, Jiali Huo, Ying Xiong, Yee Sin Ang, Hue Thi Bich Do, Dmitrii Gromyko, Guangxin Liu, Michel Bosman, Kah-Wee Ang, Lay Kee Ang, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Zhaogang Dong, Lin Wu
{"title":"Photon-driven electron excitations in quantum materials","authors":"Xuan Dong, Jiali Huo, Ying Xiong, Yee Sin Ang, Hue Thi Bich Do, Dmitrii Gromyko, Guangxin Liu, Michel Bosman, Kah-Wee Ang, Lay Kee Ang, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Zhaogang Dong, Lin Wu","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00314-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00314-6","url":null,"abstract":"Photon-driven electron excitation is a foundational mechanism underpinning the interaction between light and matter in quantum materials, including van der Waals materials, Dirac and Weyl semi-metals, topological insulators and other emergent phases. These enable next-generation optoelectronic, energy conversion and quantum information technologies. However, translating this mechanistic understanding into an engineering implementation is hindered by excitation efficiency, environmental stability and scalable fabrication. In this Review, we provide a mechanistic perspective on key photon-driven electron-excitation processes based on energy flow pathways, including electron–hole generation in semiconductors, high-mobility electron transport in semi-metals, photoemission from metals and low-dimensional materials, and light-induced thermoelectric effects. We examine engineering strategies to enhance the efficiency of these processes, including interface control, material selection and compatible integration. By bridging fundamental mechanisms with device-level metrics, this Review offers a unified framework and practical roadmap for advancing scalable, multifunctional optoelectronic devices that integrate sensing, data storage and computation. This Review explores photon-driven electron excitations in quantum materials, connecting semiconductor photogeneration, semi-metal transport, photoemission and thermoelectric conversion to device-level trade-offs. It highlights cross-mechanism benchmarking, presenting a roadmap towards complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible optoelectronics for integrated sensing, memory, computation and emerging photonic technologies.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 8","pages":"523-540"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leading by example","authors":"Xiwen Gong, Rachel Won","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00311-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00311-9","url":null,"abstract":"Xiwen Gong, assistant professor of chemical engineering of the University of Michigan, shares her career path and vision as the early-career winner of the 2026 Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 9","pages":"546-547"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148910096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Space energy is infrastructure, not just generation","authors":"Qi Wang, Zhengguang Liu, Yixun Xue, Chenhui Lin, Defeng Sun, Wenchuan Wu, Hongbin Sun","doi":"10.1038/s44287-026-00317-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44287-026-00317-3","url":null,"abstract":"Power can be harvested in space today. The real challenge is building, operating and certifying a complete energy system in orbit — under extreme conditions, with no one nearby to repair it. Whether space joins the world’s energy supply will depend on that challenge, not just on generation.","PeriodicalId":501701,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering","volume":"3 8","pages":"469-470"},"PeriodicalIF":34.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148704535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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