: Md Mazharul Islam, Shamiul Alam, Catherine D Schuman, Md Shafayat Hossaini and Ahmedullah Aziz

August, 2023

IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10272662

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Abstract

Spiking neural network offers the most bio-realistic approach to mimic the parallelism and compactness of the human brain. A spiking neuron is the central component of an SNN which generates information-encoded spikes. We present a comprehensive design space analysis of the superconducting memristor (SM)-based electrically reconfigurable cryogenic neuron. A superconducting nanowire (SNW) connected in parallel with an SM function as a dual-frequency oscillator and two of these oscillators can be coupled to design a dynamically tunable spiking neuron. The same neuron topology was previously proposed where a fixed resistance was used in parallel with the SNW. Replacing the fixed resistance with the SM provides an additional tuning knob with four distinct combinations of SM resistances, which improves the reconfigurability by up to ∼70%. Utilizing an external bias current (Ibias), the spike frequency can be modulated up to ∼3.5 times. Two distinct spike amplitudes (∼1V and ∼1.8 V) are also achieved. Here, we perform a systematic sensitivity analysis and show that the reconfigurability can be further tuned by choosing a higher input current strength. By performing a 500-point Monte Carlo variation analysis, we find that the spike amplitude is more variation robust than spike frequency and the variation robustness can be further improved by choosing a higher Ibias. Our study provides valuable insights for further exploration of materials and circuit level modification of the neuron that will be useful for system-level incorporation of the neuron circuit.

Citation Information

Text

author      M. M. Islam and S. Alam and C. D. Schuman and M. S. Hossain and A. Aziz
title       A Deep Dive Into the Design Space of a Dynamically Reconfigurable Cryogenic Spiking Neuron
journal     IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology
month       October
year        2023
url         https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10272662
doi         10.1109/TNANO.2023.3322138

Bibtex

@ARTICLE{ias:23:ddi,
    author = "M. M. Islam and S. Alam and C. D. Schuman and M. S. Hossain and A. Aziz",
    title = "A Deep Dive Into the Design Space of a Dynamically Reconfigurable Cryogenic Spiking Neuron",
    journal = "IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology",
    month = "October",
    year = "2023",
    url = "https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10272662",
    doi = "10.1109/TNANO.2023.3322138"
}