Auxiliary Pulse-Extender and Current-Attenuator Circuits for Flexible Interaction with Memristive Crossbars in SNNs

Abstract

This paper presents a pulse-extender, a delay-element, and a current-attenuator as auxiliary circuits that make it possible to have flexible interaction with memristor crossbars in spiking neural networks. In the presynaptic part, the pulse-extender makes the inputs compatible with the pulsed-characterization of memristors. In the post-synaptic part, the current attenuator relaxes the system in terms of requiring low-offset amplifiers and also makes it possible to design neurons with small membrane capacitors. The circuits are fabricated in a CMOS 180nm technology. The measurements verify that these blocks play an important role in reaching an SNN with real-time performance.