Niobium Neuron: RSFQ Based Bio-Inspired Circuit

• Published in: IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity 2021-08, Vol.31 (5), p.1-5
• Main Authors: Feldhoff, Frank, Toepfer, Hannes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analog-digital integrated circuits; Circuit design; Computation; Data processing; Digital electronics; Information processing; Integrated circuit modeling; Linearity; Mixed analog digital integrated circuits; Network topologies; Neuromorphics; Neurons; Niobium; Superconducting integrated circuits; Transfer functions; Transmission lines; Very large scale integration
• ISSN: 1051-8223; 1558-2515
• DOI: 10.1109/TASC.2021.3063212

Neuromorphic and bio-inspired circuits have reached considerable attention since Moore's Law is coming to its limitations. Information processing in mammalian brains takes place in a far more energy-efficient manner and significantly faster than in the best computing architecture nowadays. We propose an approach to bring those benefits to a superconducting information processing circuit. Since the computation in a neuronal network is considered as analogue and the computation as digital, the design is grown around a Josephson comparator with its inherent non-linearity in the transfer function as the central information processing unit. Furthermore, a modified version of the Josephson Transmission Line is used to realize an adaptable coupling between neuron cells. This circuit design benefits of the noise in a 4.2 K environment and is therefore more resilient to noise and switching errors than conventional digital circuits. The proposed circuit behavior in a 2-neuron configuration and the integration in a network topology will be investigated.