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Published December 19, 1991 | public
Journal Article

A silicon neuron

Abstract

By combining neurophysiological principles with silicon engineering, we have produced an analog integrated circuit with the functional characteristics of real nerve cells. Because the physics underlying the conductivity of silicon devices and biological membranes is similar, the 'silicon neuron' is able to emulate efficiently the ion currents that cause nerve impulses and control the dynamics of their discharge. It operates in real-time and consumes little power, and many 'neurons' can be fabricated on a single silicon chip. The silicon neuron represents a step towards constructing artificial nervous systems that use more realistic principles of neural computation than do existing electronic neural networks.

Additional Information

© 1991 Nature Publishing Group. Received 24 July; accepted 22 October 1991. This project was supported by the Office of Naval Research. Fabrication was provided by MOSIS. We thank K. Martin for improving the manuscript, C. Koch and C. Mead for discussions, and N. Berman for providing neocortical data. R.J.D. acknowledges the support of the Mellon Foundation.

Additional details

Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023