On axon-inspired communications

Valeriu Beiu, Walid Ibrahim, Azam Beg, Liren Zhang, Mihai Tache

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    6 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Power consumption has been recognized as a grand challenge for nanoelectronics. With continuous scaling, wires (much more than devices) are going to be determining (almost entirely) the dynamic power: (i) their numbers are increasing exponentially, as each device needs a few wires; and (ii) they do not scale well, as their parasitic capacitances and RC-delays are not scaling in synch with device scaling. That is why innovations on both evolutionary (i.e., based-on-wires) as well as revolutionary (i.e., without-wire, or beyond-wire) solutions are called upon to tackle this challenge. Trying to find inspiration from neurons, we focus on axons which are able to communicate at quite large distances on an amazingly limited power budget. In particular, the paper analyzes axon-inspired communications as dense locally-connected arrays of voltage-gated (non-linear) ion channels. Our theoretical results suggest that hexagonal arrays should minimize power consumption. Emulating the logical functioning of voltage-gated ion channels by single-electron technology/transistor gates can lead to practical power/energy lower bounds for nanoelectronics.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication2011 20th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design, ECCTD 2011
    Pages789-792
    Number of pages4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011
    Event2011 20th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design, ECCTD 2011 - Linkoping, Sweden
    Duration: Aug 29 2011Aug 31 2011

    Publication series

    Name2011 20th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design, ECCTD 2011

    Other

    Other2011 20th European Conference on Circuit Theory and Design, ECCTD 2011
    Country/TerritorySweden
    CityLinkoping
    Period8/29/118/31/11

    Keywords

    • Action potential
    • axon
    • communication
    • ion channel
    • power
    • single electron technology (SET)

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Hardware and Architecture
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'On axon-inspired communications'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this