A Reliability Assessment Approach for The Biomimetic Neuron Circuit

Performance of biomimetic neurons used in novel communication systems depends on its capacitors. Thus, degradation of capacitors in neurons may have significant impact on reliability of such a communication system. In this paper, a simulation-based reliability assessment approach is developed for biomimetic neuron circuits to consider the degradation of capacitors. SPICE simulation, neural coding/decoding method, and degradation modelling of capacitors are integrated to assess impact of capacitors on the given neuron circuit. A classic Hodgkin-Huxley neuron circuit is simulated to obtain output waveforms with degraded capacitors. It has been found that the output waveform of the selected neuron changes significantly with capacitors’ degradation. Unless capacitor breaks down, the neural coding method avoids impact of the capacitors’ degradation on the received data.