IC design of pulse-type hardware neuron model for piezoelectric element impact-type MEMS microrobot

This paper presents the integrated circuit (IC) which could output a driving waveform to generate the walking motion of the piezoelectric element impact-type micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) microrobot. The microrobot was made from silicon wafer fabricated by micro fabrication technology. The size of the fabricated robot was 4.0 × 4.6 × 3.6 mm. IC design of the pulse-type hardware neuron model (P-HNM) had been done by using CMOS process. P-HNM has the same basic features of biological neurons to generate the pulse waveform. Therefore, P-HNM outputs the driving waveform using electrical oscillation such as biological neuron. In this paper, we showed that the P-HNM which outputs the driving waveform for the piezoelectric element impact-type MEMS actuator could design as bare chip IC. As a result, we showed that P-HNM with driving circuit could generate the driving waveform of the rotary-type actuator of piezoelectric element impact-type MEMS microrobot. The generation of the driving waveform could realize without any software programs or analog digital converters.