An Enhanced Floating Gate Memory for the Online Training of Analog Neural Networks

Abstract

Floating gate (FG) memory has long erasing time, which limits its application as an electronic synapse in online training. This paper proposes a novel enhanced floating gate memory (EFM) by TCAD simulation. Here, three other structures are simulated just for comparison. The simulation results show that the erasing speed is about 34ns while the other three need the time over 1.8ms, which makes the operation speed of long-term potentiation (LTP) more symmetrical to long-term depression (LTD). In addition, both LTP and LTD are approximately linear in the simulation results. The speed, linearity, and symmetry of weight update are the keys to online training of analog neural networks. These excellent performances indicated a potential application of EFM in analog neuro-inspired computing.

Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Architectures for Nuclear Radiation Detection Applications

“…In addition to memristors, researchers have been demonstrating neuromorphic architectures with various types of nonvolatile memory (NVM) devices, such as floating gate transistors [13], organic field effect transistors [14], and memcapacitors [15]. However, the memristor's real-time computing capabilities provide an advantage over other nonvolatile memories (NVMs) due to their low-power operation, which is the result of lower parasitic capacitance and smaller footprint [16].…”