Title: Energy-efficient Hybrid CMOS-NEMS LIF Neuron Circuit in 28 nm CMOS Process,
Abstract: Designing analog sub-threshold neuromorphic circuits in deep sub-micron
technologies e.g. 28 nm can be a daunting task due to the problem of excessive
leakage current. We propose novel energy-efficient hybrid CMOS-nano
electro-mechanical switches (NEMS) Leaky Integrate and Fire (LIF) neuron and
synapse circuits and investigate the impact of NEM switches on the leakage
power and overall energy consumption. We analyze the performance of
biologically-inspired neuron circuit in terms of leakage power consumption and
present new energy-efficient neural circuits that operate with biologically
plausible firing rates. Our results show the proposed CMOS-NEMS neuron circuit
is, on average, 35% more energy-efficient than its CMOS counterpart with same
complexity in 28 nm process. Moreover, we discuss how NEM switches can be
utilized to further improve the scalability of mixed-signal neuromorphic
circuits.