Biomimetic Analog Silicon Synaptic Circuit with Tunable Reversal Potential

Experimental results of a biomimetic silicon synaptic circuit capable of generating both excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic currents are presented. The generated synaptic current takes into account its first-order dependence on the instantaneous value of the postsynaptic membrane potential, with the synaptic current being proportional to the difference between a tunable synaptic reversal potential and the membrane potential of the postsynaptic neuron. None of the synaptic circuits proposed to date take this dependence into account over the range of biologically plausible synaptic reversal potentials and membrane potential. Special emphasis has been put on minimizing the static power consumption of the synaptic circuit, a design metric not yet analyzed or reported in most of the contemporary CMOS-based synaptic circuits.