Mimicry of Excitatory and Inhibitory Artificial Neuron with Leaky Integrate-and-Fire Function by a Single MOSFET

For the first time, a leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron with both excitatory and inhibitory characteristics is demonstrated using a single MOSFET. No additional circuits such as comparator, reset circuit, or current-to-voltage converter as well as a membrane capacitor are needed, and thus the LIF neuron is realized with a footprint of 6 F2. Because of its gate terminal, neuron firing is selectively inhibited, which can improve the energy efficiency of the neuromorphic system by inducing sparse activity. Furthermore, the spiking property of the neuron can be controlled by the gate, which can provide additional room to enhance the classification accuracy.