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Mitigating the Effects of RRAM Process Variation on the Accuracy of Artifical Neural Networks
(2022)
Weight storage is a key challenge in the efficient implementation of artificial neural networks. Novel memory technologies such as RRAM are able to greatly improve density and introduce non-volatility and multibit capabilities to this component of ANN accelerators. The usage of RRAM in this domain comes with downsides, mainly caused by cycle-to-cycle and device-to-device variability leading to erroneous readouts, greatly affecting digital systems. ANNs have the ability to compensate for this by their inherent redundancy and usually exhibit a gradual deterioration in the accuracy of the task at hand. This means, that slight error rates can be acceptable for weight storage in an ANN accelerator. In this work we link device-to-device variability to the accuracy of an ANN for such an accelerator. From this study, we can estimate how strongly a certain net is affected by a certain device parameter variability. This methodology is then used to present three mitigation strategies and to evaluate how they affect the reaction of the network to variability: a) Dropout Layers b) Fault-Aware Training c) Redundancy. These mitigations are then evaluated by their ability to improve accuracy and to lower hardware overhead by providing data for a real-word example. We improved this network’s resilience in such a way that it could tolerate double the variation in one of the device parameters (standard deviation of the oxide thickness can be 0.4 nm instead of 0.2 nm while maintaining sufficient accuracy.)
In this work, we present an integrated read and programming circuit for Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) cells. Since there are a lot of different RRAM technologies in research and the process variations of this new memory technology often spread over a wide range of electrical properties, the proposed circuit focuses on versatility in order to be adaptable to different cell properties. The circuit is suitable for both read and programming operations based on voltage
pulses of flexible length and height. The implemented read method is based on evaluating the voltage drop over a measurement resistor and can distinguish up to eight different states, which are coded in binary, thereby realizing a digitization of the analog memory value. The circuit was fabricated in the 130 nm CMOS process line of IHP. The simulations were done using a physics-based, multi-level RRAM model. The measurement results prove the functionality of the read circuit and the programming system and demonstrate that the read system can distinguish up to eight different states with an overall resistance ratio of 7.9.
Modeling and Fault Detection of Brushless Direct Current Motor by Deep Learning Sensor Data Fusion
(2022)
Robust Si/Ge heterostructure metasurfaces as building blocks for wavelength-selective photodetectors
(2023)
In-memory computing with resistive-switching random access memory (RRAM) crossbar arrays has the potential to overcome the major bottlenecks faced by digital hardware for data-heavy workloads such as deep learning. However, RRAM devices are subject to several non-idealities that result in significant inference accuracy drops compared with software baseline accuracy. A critical one is related to the drift of the conductance states appearing immediately at the end of program and verify algorithms that are mandatory for accurate
multi-level conductance operation. The support of drift models
in state-of-the-art simulation tools of memristive computationin-memory is currently only in the early stage, since they
overlook key device- and array-level parameters affecting drift
resilience such as the programming algorithm of RRAM cells,
the choice of target conductance states and the weight-toconductance mapping scheme. The goal of this paper is to fully expose these parameters to RRAM crossbar designers as a multi-dimensional optimization space of drift resilience. For this purpose, a simulation framework is developed, which comes with the suitable abstractions to propagate the effects of those RRAM crossbar configuration parameters to their ultimate implications over inference performance stability.
Predictive maintenance of equipment requires a set of data collected through sensors, from which models will learn behaviors that will allow the automatic detection or prediction of these behaviors. The objective is to anticipate unexpected situations such as sudden equipment stoppages. Industries are noisy environments due to production lines that involve a series of components. As a result, the data will always be obstructed by noise. Noise-robust predictive maintenance models, which include ensemble and deep learning models with and without data fusion, are proposed to enhance the monitoring of industrial equipment. The work reported in this article is based on two components, a milling tool, and a motor, with sound, vibration, and ultrasound data collected in real experiments. Four main tasks were performed, namely the construction of the datasets, the training of the monitoring models without adding artificial noise to the data, the evaluation of the robustness of the previously trained models by injecting several levels of noise into the test data, and the optimization of the models by a proposed noisy training approach. The results show that the models maintain their performances at over 95% accuracy despite adding noise in the test phase. These performances decrease by only 2% at a considerable noise level of 15-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The noisy training method proved to be an optimal solution for improving the noise robustness and accuracy of convolutional deep learning models, whose performance regression of 2% went from a noise level of 28 to 15 dB like the other models.
Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have vast application potential from industrial logistics and disaster monitoring to smart farming, for example, to create maps with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) cameras and AI-based image classification or the precision spot application of fertilizers. Operating multiple UAVs in parallel, including those with different specializations, enables efficient coverage of large areas. While existing research focused mainly on predefined flight formations for swarms or autonomous missions for single UAVs, the focus of this work is on multiple UAVs with individually adaptable missions. We derive communication system requirements from swarm coordination algorithms and present a respective design. The resulting modular architecture enables future research on autonomous adaptive UAV swarms and their use as flying sensor platforms.
The use of resistive random-access memory (RRAM) for in-memory computing (IMC) architectures has significantly improved the energy-efficiency of artificial neural networks (ANN) over the past years. Current RRAM-technologies are physically limited to a defined unambiguously distinguishable number of stable states and a maximum resistive value and are compatible with present complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-technologies. In this work, we improved the accuracy of current ANN models by using increased weight resolutions of memristive devices, combining two or more in-series RRAM cells, integrated in the back end of line (BEOL) of the CMOS process. Based on system level simulations, 1T2R devices were fabricated in IHP's 130nm SiGe:BiCMOS technology node, demonstrating an increased number of states. We achieved an increase in weight resolution from 3 bit in ITIR cells to 6.5 bit in our 1T2R cell. The experimental data of 1T2R devices gives indications for the performance and energy-efficiency improvement in ITNR arrays for ANN applications.