Experiments in Very Large-Scale Analog Computation

Author: Kerns, Douglas A.

Year: 1993

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Hopfield, John J.

Committee Members: Hopfield, John J.; Mead, Carver; Pine, Jerome; Psaltis, Demetri

Option: Electrical Engineering

DOI: 10.7907/5ph3-1w81

Abstract

The easy and inexpensive availability of microelectronic prototype fabrication allows us to perform many kinds of experiments in the construction of electronic computational machinery. There has been a recent resurgence in analog computation in various guises: electronic implementations of neural networks, other kinds of neuromorphic circuits, and electronic simulations of various physical systems.

This text documents a set of experiments in analog computation in silicon, and includes a short discussion of the relative advantages of analog vs digital computation. The most generally useful result of the work is the development of a set of techniques that allow analog circuits to automatically trim themselves, turning marginal components into devices of good precision.

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