DSS Speaker, Vishal Saxena, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Associate Professor, University of Delaware

Title: Neuromorphic Computing: From Emerging Devices to Neuromorphic System-on-a-Chip

Abstract

Several classes of emerging non-volatile memory (NVM) devices are currently being investigated for their application in analog implementation of artificial neural networks (ANN) hardware. The device can be two- or three-terminal and employ a wide range of material systems and associated physical mechanisms to achieve two or more non-volatile memory states. ANN hardware realizations include vector matrix multipliers (VMMs) and neural-inspired or Neuromorphic computing circuits. The NVM devices are employed in the form of crossbar or crosspoint arrays with or without selectors. In order to exploit the high-density and potential low-power operation of these devices, Analog circuit designers need to accommodate non-ideal behavior of these devices. This is particularly important for optimizing transistor-level circuit design for layout area, reliability, and static and dynamic power consumption. NVM nonidealities include device variability, low resistances offered by the two-terminal devices, finite resolution, relaxation of incremental states, limited dynamic range, and read/write endurance. This talk will provide an overview of Neuromorphic System-on-a-Chip (NeuSoC) that can be realized using emerging NVM arrays, expected device characteristics, associated circuit design challenges, and potential strategies for their mitigation. The talk will also include energy-efficiency estimation and benchmarking for NeuSoCs and provide pathways for future work in this area.

Bio

Dr. Vishal Saxena is an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware where he directs the Analog Mixed-Signal and Photonic Integrated Circuits (AMPIC) lab. He obtained his B. Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2002 and Ph.D. from Boise State University, ID in 2010. Dr. Saxena is a recipient of 2015 NSF CAREER, 2016 AFOSR Young Investigator Program (YIP), and 2019 DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) awards. Dr. Saxena’s research interests include CMOS photonic interconnects, RF and millimeter-wave ICs, High-speed Data converters, Neuromorphic computing and low-power circuits for Edge-AI.