Hardware Design of Memristor-based Oscillators for Emulation of Neurological Diseases

One of the most prominent examples of a complex system in nature is the nervous system, which exhibits oscillation phenomena across its structures, from single neurons to sophisticated neural networks. Memristors have been utilized in the past decade as a promising technology for building neuromorphic systems due to their intrinsic neuromorphic properties. In this paper, we introduce a novel Memristor-based Oscillator (MBO) circuit design that implements both artificial neurons and artificial synapses in the same MBO-based medium, addressing scalability issues. The circuit design is transistor-free and simple, allowing high integration density. We utilize passive unipolar memristor devices based on the JART memristor model to design MBO neurons, which have been shown to reproduce bio-plausible spiking and bursting activities. Moreover, the MBO circuit is also realized as an artificial synapse incorporating synapse and axon mechanisms. Finally, the MBO neurons are modeled as Parkinson-related neuron types and their direct bidirectional coupling demonstrates that MBO neurons are effective in driving spiking activity in non-externally stimulated MBO neurons. This qualifies them for implementation in brain-inspired networks, providing low-cost Neurological-disease-related emulators.

Ioannis Chatzipaschalis, Evangelos Tsipas, Karolos-Alexandros Tsakalos, Antonio Rubio, Georgios Sirakoulis