A 0.5-V Linear Neuromorphic Voltage-to-Spike Encoder Using a Bulk-Driven Transconductor

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Akbari, Meysam, Covi, Erika, Tang, Kea-Tiong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Akbari, Meysam
Covi, Erika
Tang, Kea-Tiong
author_facet Akbari, Meysam
Covi, Erika
Tang, Kea-Tiong
contents This work introduces an ultralow-power voltage-to-spike encoder that achieves near-linear voltage-to-firing-rate conversion by pairing a linearized bulk-driven transconductor with a DPI-based LIF neuron. A tail-less bulk-driven differential pair improves large-signal linearity, while a translinear linearization network suppresses the dominant sinh nonlinearity and stabilizes the bias-tunable V-to-I gain. The resulting current feeds a DPI front-end that linearizes current-to-spike conversion. Fabricated in TSMC 0.18-um CMOS and operating at VDD = 0.5 V with 2-27 nA reference current, the encoder achieves a deviation of less than 5.6 percent from linearity over 0.1-0.4 V input, consumes 22-180 nW, and occupies 0.0074 mm^2.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_09315
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A 0.5-V Linear Neuromorphic Voltage-to-Spike Encoder Using a Bulk-Driven Transconductor
Akbari, Meysam
Covi, Erika
Tang, Kea-Tiong
Hardware Architecture
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
This work introduces an ultralow-power voltage-to-spike encoder that achieves near-linear voltage-to-firing-rate conversion by pairing a linearized bulk-driven transconductor with a DPI-based LIF neuron. A tail-less bulk-driven differential pair improves large-signal linearity, while a translinear linearization network suppresses the dominant sinh nonlinearity and stabilizes the bias-tunable V-to-I gain. The resulting current feeds a DPI front-end that linearizes current-to-spike conversion. Fabricated in TSMC 0.18-um CMOS and operating at VDD = 0.5 V with 2-27 nA reference current, the encoder achieves a deviation of less than 5.6 percent from linearity over 0.1-0.4 V input, consumes 22-180 nW, and occupies 0.0074 mm^2.
title A 0.5-V Linear Neuromorphic Voltage-to-Spike Encoder Using a Bulk-Driven Transconductor
topic Hardware Architecture
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09315