Pulse-Width Modulation Neuron Implemented by Single Positive-Feedback Device

Abstract

Positive-feedback (PF) device and its operation scheme to implement pulse width modulation (PWM) function was proposed and demonstrated, and the device operation mechanism for implementing PWM function was analyzed. By adjusting the amount of the charge stored in the n- floating body (Qn), the potential of the floating body linearly changes with time. When Qn reaches to a threshold value (Qth), the PF device turns on abruptly. From the linear time-varying property of Qn and the gate bias dependency of Qth, fully functionable PWM neuron properties including voltage to pulse width conversion and hard-sigmoid activation function were successfully obtained from a single PF device. A PWM neuron can be implemented by using a single PF device, thus it is beneficial to extremely reduce the area of a PWM neuron circuit than the previously reported one.