FinFET based photoreceptor for silicon retina to reduce power consumption

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a SOI FinFET device based photoreceptor for silicon retina to reduce power consumption. Nowadays, in the field of neuromorphic engineering the main aim of the researcher is to implement a biological nervous system based on silicon devices. Major performance metrics which influence the design of neuromorphic circuits along with biological plausibility are compactness, low power consumption, scalability and computational complexity. Moreover, to process the information biologically billions of neurons consume only a few watts of power. However, present design of silicon photoreceptor consumes power much larger than actual biological photoreceptor. Hence to achieve low power consumption we are using nanometer SOI FinFET device technology. In this paper, output of the outer retinal cell, namely photoreceptors, is reconstructed and verified with the help of developed ionic current based mathematical model of the retina. The model contains non-linear differential equations based on the fundamental framework of the Hodgkin-Huxley model. In order to closely match the biological response, the selection of parameters of membrane voltage and other membrane dependencies through compartments are done using MATLAB simulation. After mathematical verification, the biological behavior of photoreceptor cell of retinal system is mimicked through circuit using 180 nm Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) and 32 nm Silicon on Insulator Fin Field Effect Transistor (SOI FinFET) device. It is observed that SOI FinFET based photoreceptor for silicon retina circuit consumes less power in picowatts matching the power consumption of biological retinal system, as compared with MOSFET based circuits.

Keywords

• Silicon retina
• Photoreceptor
• Mathematical modeling
• Ionic current
• CMOS
• FinFET