Superconducting Optoelectronic Neurons II: Receiver Circuits

TL;DR

This paper explores superconducting optoelectronic circuits that utilize single-photon detectors and Josephson junctions to implement neural functions like reception, synaptic weighting, and integration, enabling scalable neural architectures.

Contribution

It introduces novel superconducting circuit designs for neurons and synapses capable of integration, coincidence detection, and handling numerous connections, advancing superconducting neural computing.

Findings

Neurons can receive input from up to 1000 synapses.

Circuits perform both excitatory and inhibitory operations.

Designs support temporal coding through coincidence detection.

Abstract

Circuits using superconducting single-photon detectors and Josephson junctions to perform signal reception, synaptic weighting, and integration are investigated. The circuits convert photon-detection events into flux quanta, the number of which is determined by the synaptic weight. The current from many synaptic connections is inductively coupled to a superconducting loop that implements the neuronal threshold operation. Designs are presented for synapses and neurons that perform integration as well as detect coincidence events for temporal coding. Both excitatory and inhibitory connections are demonstrated. It is shown that a neuron with a single integration loop can receive input from 1000 such synaptic connections, and neurons of similar design could employ many loops for dendritic processing.