A New Analog Circuit Implementation of the Izhikevich Neuron

Control systems based on neuromorphic structures are continuously gaining in the automatic control community. These structures are based on neuronal systems and their spiking behavior with the aim of exploiting intrinsic robustness and rapid information processing. The fundamental block of neuromorphic control systems is the specific neuron dynamics adopted. This choice is particularly relevant in view of practical implementations, as it must provide a suitable level of flexibility, reconfigurability, and low power consumption. In this paper, a novel analog circuit implementation of the Izhikevich neuron model is presented, bearing in mind these specifications. The proposed circuit is based on simple standard components, thus it can be implemented without adopting specific integration processes, and its behavior can be easily tuned. A complete characterization in terms of the interspike interval of the observed dynamics will also be presented.