English

A Linear Implementation of an Analog Resonate-and-Fire Neuron

Signal Processing 2025-11-18 v1

Abstract

Oscillatory dynamics have recently proven highly effective in machine learning (ML), particularly through State-Space-Models (SSM) that leverage structured linear recurrences for long-range temporal processing. Resonate-and-Fire neurons capture such oscillatory behavior in a spiking framework, offering strong expressivity with sparse event-based communication. While early analog RAF circuits employed nonlinear coupling and suffered from process sensitivity, modern ML practice favors linear recurrence. In this work, we introduce a resonate-and-fire (RAF) neuron, built in 22nm Fully-Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator technology, that aligns with SSM principles while retaining the efficiency of spike-based communication. We analyze its dynamics, linearity, and resilience to Process, Voltage, and Temperature variations, and evaluate its power, performance, and area trade-offs. We map the characteristics of our circuit into a system-level simulation where our RAF neuron is utilized in a keyword-spotting task, showing that its non-idealities do not hinder performance. Our results establish RAF neurons as robust, energy-efficient computational primitives for neuromorphic hardware.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.12297,
  title  = {A Linear Implementation of an Analog Resonate-and-Fire Neuron},
  author = {Angqi Liu and Filippo Moro and Sebastian Billaudelle and Melika Payvand},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.12297},
  year   = {2025}
}