Sub-threshold-based ultra-low-power neural spike detector

A new design methodology is presented for detecting spiking signals from complex brain neural potentials, which applies ultra-low-power technology to implement a nonlinear energy operator (NEO)-based spike detector. The NEO spike detector achieves a differentiator with a differential structure and a multiplier based on the dynamic translinear principle using a sub-threshold technique. As is demonstrated by the simulation results, the proposed circuit has detected the instantaneous energy of the input signals well, which focus in the range 5 Hz to 10 kHz.