Silicon Neuron

Many researchers have developed neural architectures based on extremely simplified models of neurons. Recently, researchers have developed an analog electronic model of a neuron that more accurately reproduces its biological counterpart. This electronic neuron was designed to emulate the ionic currents present in biological neurons. Based on this neural model, we designed and fabricated an eight input neuron on a 2mm by 2mm 40 pin VLSI very large scale integrated chip. This neuron had four excitatory and four inhibitory inputs and was approximately 330 microns by 330 microns in size. In this report I describe how the neuron operates, some of the specifics of our design, our testing procedures, and the results of our tests.