A Piezoelectric Biologically Plausible Spiking Neuron

This paper presents a force sensitive circuit, based on a CMOS-compatible pressure sensitive Piezo-FET and a low-power quadratic integrate-and-fire CMOS neuron. The neuron operates within a biologically plausible frequency range of DC to 1.2 kHz, depending on the applied force input. The circuit is able to work in either a low-force-detection, a low-power or a bio-mode, in which firing patterns are generated that are representative of slow adapting sensory cells. Depending on the chosen parameters, different output spike pattern can be generated. In the low-force-detection mode, a minimum force of 30mN can be detected. The power consumption is between 940nW in low-power mode and 4.5 μW in low-force-detection mode. A sensitivity of 200 Hz/N is reached in the bio-mode.