High density VLSI implementation of a bipolar CNN with reduced programmability

In this paper a VLSI implementation of a bipolar CNN with a reduced programmability is described. The programmability of the weights and the bias term is reduced to one bit. Since the programming is digital, the template write time is fast. While losing some generality in the programming, the cell array is still able to perform most of the bipolar CNN templates presented so far. The proposed structure yields a very compact realization in a dense layout. The cell size using a 0.18μm digital CMOS process was 155μm².