Pulse-Width Modulation Neuron Implemented by Single Positive-Feedback Device

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel PWM neuron implementation using a single positive-feedback device, enabling compact and efficient neural circuit design by leveraging charge dynamics and threshold behavior.

Contribution

The work demonstrates a new PWM neuron design with a single PF device, simplifying circuit architecture and reducing area compared to previous methods.

Findings

Successfully achieved voltage to pulse width conversion.

Realized a hard-sigmoid activation function.

Reduced circuit area for PWM neurons.

Abstract

Positive-feedback (PF) device and its operation scheme to implement pulse width modulation (PWM) function was proposed and demonstrated, and the device operation mechanism for implementing PWM function was analyzed. By adjusting the amount of the charge stored in the n- floating body (Qn), the potential of the floating body linearly changes with time. When Qn reaches to a threshold value (Qth), the PF device turns on abruptly. From the linear time-varying property of Qn and the gate bias dependency of Qth, fully functionable PWM neuron properties including voltage to pulse width conversion and hard-sigmoid activation function were successfully obtained from a single PF device. A PWM neuron can be implemented by using a single PF device, thus it is beneficial to extremely reduce the area of a PWM neuron circuit than the previously reported one.