Networks of Coupled VO2 Oscillators for Neuromorphic Computing

Neuromorphic computing is a wide research field aimed to the realization of brain-inspired hardware, apt to tackle computation of unstructured data more efficiently than currently done with standard computational units. Oscillatory neural networks are known for their associative memory capability, which enables to retrieve the information stored in the system from noisy or incomplete data. The development of phase-transition materials such as vanadiumdioxide (VO2) allows to design compact relaxation oscillator units which can be coupled in frequency and phase to realize an oscillatory neural network in hardware. In this thesis, we investigate the oscillatory neural network technology from the realization of the basic oscillator components with VO2 to the exploitation of the coupled oscillators as analog filters in convolutional neural networks applications. VO2 phase-transition devices are realized in a CMOS compatible process in two geometries, a planar and a crossbar configuration. The impact of the polycrystallinity of the VO2 film on the insulator-to-metal transition of the device is analyzed; through the contacting of a single grain we demonstrate the realization of a VO2 device with a single, sharp phase transition. The VO2 devices are connected in circuits to build networks of coupled oscillators. Through coupling with resistive and capacitive elements, experimental demonstrations of a 4-VO2 coupled oscillator network is shown. The network encodes the input and output information in the relative phase of the oscillators. The associative memory capability of the system is used to extract features from hand-written digits. By expanding the network to a 3×3 coupled oscillator system, we demonstrate in simulations how an oscillatory neural network can replace up to five digital filters in a convolutional neural network, retaining the same image processing capabilities.

A Cryo-CMOS Oscillator With an Automatic Common-Mode Resonance Calibration for Quantum Computing Applications

Edoardo Charbon, Yue Chen, Fabio Sebastiano

This article presents a 4-to-5 GHz LC oscillator operating at 4.2K for quantum computing applications. The phase noise (PN) specification of the oscillator is derived based on the control fidelity for a single-qubit operation. To reveal the substantial gap between the theoretical predictions and measurement results at cryogenic temperatures, a new PN expression for an oscillator is derived by considering the shot-noise effect. To reach the optimum performance of an LC oscillator, a common-mode (CM) resonance technique is implemented. Additionally, this work presents a digital calibration loop to adjust the CM frequency automatically at 4.2K, reducing the oscillator's PN and thus improving the control fidelity. The calibration technique reduces the flicker corner of the oscillator over a wide temperature range (10 x and 8 x reduction at 300K and 4.2K, respectively). At 4.2K, our 0.15-mm(2) oscillator consumes a 5-mW power and achieves a PN of -153.8dBc/Hz at a 10MHz offset, corresponding to a 200-dB FOM. The calibration circuits consume only a 0.4-mW power and 0.01-mm(2) area.

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2022

CPG-based prostheses control

Marc Louis

In this thesis we describe a strategy to control robotic knees and ankles. A dynamical system is used to generate a position trajectory to control a servo motor replacing the missing joint. The dynamical system consists in a pool of coupled oscillators modeling a central pattern generator (CPG). As a first step, anthropometric trajectories of the knee and ankle are learned by the system through the convergence of the oscillators to the specific frequencies, corresponding amplitudes and phase relations. The same system is then used to play back these trajectories. As a sensory feedback to trigger the playback we use one adaptive frequency oscillator to synchronized with the acceleration from the thigh. We use a bipedal model in a physics-based robot simulation environment to test the proposed system. Finally we present a simple hardware implementation of this system on the Agonist-Antagonist Active Knee prototype.

2010

A nA Crystal - Less Oscillator for Internet of Things

Mathieu Yves Hervé Coustans, Maher Kayal, François Krummenacher

This work presents an ultra-low power oscillator designed to target different contexts, such as crystal-assisted time keeping, reference oscillator to optimize the always on domain of a microcontroller or wake-up timer. This oscillator enables ultra-low power operation in 0.18 mu m CMOS technology; the core oscillator consumes 2.5 nW at room temperature, with a temperature stability of 14 ppm/degrees C [-40 degrees C -60 degrees C] and 0.07 %/V supply sensitivity.

Ieee2016