Design of an analogue ASIC using subthreshold CMOS transistors to model biological neurons

Author

Alvado, L. ; Tomas, J. ; Masson, S. Renaud-Le ; Douence, V.

Author_Institution

Lab. IXL, Bordeaux I Univ., Talence, France

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

97

Lastpage

100

Abstract

We have designed an analogue IC that emulates the electrical activity of biological neurons according to the Hodgkin-Huxley modeling formalism. We detail the different blocks of the “neuron” IC. The circuit is designed using mostly MOS transistors in weak inversion region and integrated with the AMS 0.6 μm CMOS process. The main advantages of such a design are: (1) the low power consumption, that will allow the integration and the study of more complex neural networks on a single chip, (2) the usage of electronic voltage and current ranges that are identical to those of biological neurons. Measurements demonstrate the capabilities of the circuit for its use as an artificial neuron

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; analogue processing circuits; application specific integrated circuits; low-power electronics; neural chips; 0.6 micron; AMS CMOS process; Hodgkin-Huxley modeling formalism; analogue ASIC; artificial neuron; biological neuron modelling; power consumption; subthreshold CMOS transistors; weak inversion region; Analog integrated circuits; Application specific integrated circuits; Biological system modeling; CMOS integrated circuits; CMOS process; Energy consumption; Integrated circuit modeling; MOSFETs; Neurons; Semiconductor device modeling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Custom Integrated Circuits, 2001, IEEE Conference on.

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6591-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CICC.2001.929732

Filename

929732