Design of a Current-Mode OTA-Based Memristor Emulator for Neuromorphic Medical Application

Area of Science:

• Solid-state circuits
• Neuromorphic engineering
• Device emulation

Background:

• Memristors offer unique properties for advanced computing.
• Developing reliable memristor emulators is crucial for circuit design and testing.
• Existing emulators may lack stability or comprehensive validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present transistor-level simulation results for a novel memristor emulator circuit.
• To validate the emulator's functionality, stability, and reliability.
• To demonstrate the emulator's application in a Memristive Integrate-and-Fire neuron circuit.

Main Methods:

• Circuit design incorporating an inverter and a current-mode-controlled operational transconductance amplifier.
• Transient performance evaluation across a 20 MHz to 100 MHz frequency range.
• Reliability verification using corner simulations, Monte Carlo, and temperature variation tests.

Main Results:

• The memristor emulator circuit demonstrates functionality at the transistor level.
• Low power consumption of 0.1 mW at a 1.2 V supply was achieved using 0.18 μm TSMC technology.
• The emulator was successfully applied in a CMOS-based Memristive Integrate-and-Fire neuron circuit.

Conclusions:

• The novel memristor emulator is a reliable and functional circuit design.
• The emulator enables ultra-low-power computing and advanced processing applications.
• This work contributes to the development of neuromorphic systems and bio-inspired computing.