A Sub-35 pW Axon-Hillock artificial neuron circuit

Francois Danneville (1, 2, 3) , Christophe Loyez (1, 4, 3) , K. Carpentier (5) , I. Sourikopoulos , E. Mercier (6) , A. Cappy (1, 2)

1 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520
2 ANODE - IEMN - Advanced NanOmeter DEvices - IEMN
3 IRCICA - Institut de Recherche sur les Composants logiciels et matériels pour l'Information et la Communication Avancé - UAR 3380
4 CSAM - IEMN - Circuits Systèmes Applications des Micro-ondes - IEMN
5 SATT NORD - Société d’Accélération du Transfert de Technologie
6 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information

Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications are developing at a high rate, facing soon a tremendous energy challenge. In this context, the original Axon-Hillock (AH) Artificial Neuron (AN) has been optimized to achieve ultra-low power (ULP) consumption. The membrane capacitance was taken out, and in order to drastically reduce its power consumption, the (feedback) capacitance is lowered to 5 fF, the transistors gate width is reduced to 120 nm and the supply voltage is decreased to as low as 200 mV. Designed and fabricated using 65 nm CMOS Technology, the refined AH neuron features a standby power of 11 pW, and when excited, a power consumption that does not exceed 30 pW for a firing frequency of 15.6 kHz. Its energy efficiency per spike is lower than 2 fJ / spike when the DC power is included (around 1 fJ / spike excluding the DC power), for an area of 31 µm2. These performance confer to this ULP AH neuron a high potential for future development of highly energy efficient Spiking Neural Networks, required to design future neuroprocessors embedded in various applications (smart visual sensors for autonomous vehicles, robotics).

Mots clés: Ultra low power; Artificial neuron; Axon-Hillock; CMOS; High energy efficiency

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Francois Danneville, Christophe Loyez, K. Carpentier, I. Sourikopoulos, E. Mercier, et al.. A Sub-35 pW Axon-Hillock artificial neuron circuit. Solid-State Electronics, 2019, 153, pp.88-92. ⟨10.1016/j.sse.2019.01.002⟩. ⟨hal-03330291⟩