A CMOS winner-takes-all circuit for self-organizing neural networks

A current-input winner-takes-all (WTA) circuit using the properties of a switchedcurrent integrator and a Schmitt trigger is presented. Unlike other conventional WTA circuits, this current-input WTA does not use excitatory and inhibitory feedback during the competition phase. Instead, it allows all the WTA cells to compete among themselves. The proposed WTA circuit has a wide input range without normalization, shows a high sensitivity for the winning cell and produces sufficiently distinct binary values to the winning and losing cells.