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Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2011 Symposium (2012) / Chapter Skim
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Ultra Low-Power Biomedical and Bio-Inspired Systems--Rahul Sarpeshkar
Pages 137-142

The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.


From page 137...
... A rigorous comparison of the pros and cons of analog versus digital computation (Sarpeshkar, 1998) reveals that analog computation, which exploits freely available physical basis functions in the underlying technology that are not necessarily logical or linear to compute, is more energy efficient than digital computation at low precision and vice versa (Sarpeshkar, 1998)
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From page 138...
... The resulting broadband RF cochlea chip operates with 20-fold lower hardware cost than a traditional analog filter bank or with 100-fold lower power than a system that directly digitizes its RF input to perform spectrum analysis. The RF cochlea is useful as a front end in advanced cognitive or software radios of the future (Sarpeshkar, 2010)
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From page 139...
... discusses the practical engineering constraints needed in such devices. As these examples illustrate, analog and bio-inspired circuits have enabled and are continuing to enable noise-robust, highly miniature, and ultra-low-power operation in neural prosthetics, a necessity to reduce advanced research to practical clinical applications (Sarpeshkar, 2010)
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From page 140...
... Circuits in cell biology and circuits in electronics may be viewed as being highly similar, with biology using molecules, ions, proteins, and DNA rather than electrons and transistors. The striking math ematical similarities between chemical reaction dynamics and electronic current flow in the subthreshold regime of transistor operation, including the Boltzmann stochastics of current flow (Sarpeshkar, 2010)
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From page 141...
... 2011. A low-power 32-channel digitally programmable neural recording integrated circuit.
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From page 142...
... 2011. An articulatory silicon vocal tract for speech and hearing prostheses.
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Key Terms

  • biomedical circuits
  • highly miniature
  • energy efficient
  • spectrum analysis
  • power consumption

  • neural stimulation
  • micropower neural
  • wireless neural
  • programmable analog
  • analog filter

  • electronic chip
  • neural prosthetics
  • bionic ear
  • filter bank
  • auditory nerve

  • lower power
  • circuit models
  • ematical similarities
  • chemical reactions
  • energy efficiency

  • nerve stimulation
  • analog versus
  • ultra low
  • current flow
  • low power

  • noisy components
  • digitally programmable
  • tonotopic current
  • precise computation
  • microphone signal


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