A CMOS-memristor hybrid system for implementing stochastic binary spike timing-dependent plasticity

This paper describes a fully experimental hybrid system in which a 4 × 4 memristive crossbar spiking neural network (SNN) was assembled using custom high-resistance state memristors with analogue CMOS neurons fabricated in 180nm CMOS technology. The custom memristors used NMOS selector transistors,...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ahmadi-Farsani, Javad, Ricci, Saverio, Hashemkhani, Shahin, Ielmini, Daniele, Linares Barranco, Bernabé, Serrano Gotarredona, María Teresa
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2022
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repository:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/155265
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/155265
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2021.0018
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Analogue current scaling
CMOS analogue neurons
Non-volatile memristors
Spike timing-dependent plasticity
Spiking neural networks
Stochastic-binary STDP
Description
Summary:This paper describes a fully experimental hybrid system in which a 4 × 4 memristive crossbar spiking neural network (SNN) was assembled using custom high-resistance state memristors with analogue CMOS neurons fabricated in 180nm CMOS technology. The custom memristors used NMOS selector transistors, made available on a second 180nm CMOS chip. One drawback is that memristors operate with currents in the micro-Amperes range, while analogue CMOS neurons may need to operate with currents in the pico-Amperes range. One possible solution was to use a compact circuit to scale the memristor-domain currents down to the analogue CMOS neuron domain currents by at least 5 6 orders of magnitude. Here, we proposed using an on-chip compact current splitter circuit based on MOS ladders to aggressively attenuate the currents by over 5 orders of magnitude. This circuit was added before each neuron. This paper describes the proper experimental operation of an SNN circuit using a 4 × 4 1T1R synaptic crossbar together with four post-synaptic CMOS circuits, each with a 5-decade current attenuator and an integrateand-fire neuron. It also demonstrates one-shot winnertakes-all training and stochastic binary spike-Timingdependent-plasticity learning using this small system. This article is part of the theme issue 'Advanced neurotechnologies: Translating innovation for health and well-being.