Figure 2
From: Ultra-low-power switching circuits based on a binary pattern generator with spiking neurons
Application example of the binary pattern generator. (a) A block diagram of the DC-DC voltage converter circuit that consists of an inductor and several switches. (b) A circuit diagram of the simulated DC-DC voltage converter circuit, where the switching operation is controlled by the binary pattern generator. The binary pattern generator consists of a spiking neuron circuit defining the switching period, and two waiting time generators for switching sequences. The topology of the DC-DC voltage converter circuit is a typical buck-boost converter with a 200 mH inductor. (c) The voltage or current wave forms of the binary pattern generator and the DC-DC voltage converter circuit. (d) The wave forms of the binary pattern generator and the voltages around the S1 switch. The time span corresponds to the blue shadowed region in (c). (e) The simulated output power and the control power as a function of the input power when VC1 is around 3 V and VC2 is around 5 V. The input power is varied by changing the period of VSPK1 from 3 s to 50 μs. The control power is negligible, several orders smaller than the input or output power. (f) The simulated power conversion efficiency (the ratio of the output power to the input power) as a function of the output power, which remains a relatively high value down to an extremely low output power level. (g) The classification of the control power (2.23 nW) when the input power is 84 μW, which corresponds to a point with a solid circle in (e). The power consumption of the binary pattern generator (“Neurons”) is sufficiently small, even smaller than the logic circuit.
