Bioinspired electonics research activity is carried out in collaboration with CSAM Group and it relies upon the development of different biomimetic sensors [BIOC-23] [Rech-20]. Various sensory modalities are investigated : vision, acoutic, electromagnetic. The activity related to optical sensor, that mimicks a biological retina, has progressed within the context of a collaboration with YUMAIN Company (which took a patent licence during 12 months). Secondly, a biomimetic bioacoustic sensor is currently in progress. This project has a twofold objective within the context of natural sensory data coded in the form of electrical pulses : (i) perform acoustic signature recognition (through the use of an artificial cochlea) using spiking neural networks intended to Cetaceans classification, (ii) the localization of a sound (for instance clicks emitted by sperm whales) through interaural inferences. Finally, an electromagnetic bioinspired sensor has been developed, named “wake up radio” (WU), which is still evolving. This WU radio aims to wake up the (main) receiver of a radio node only when it is necessary. Currently, it features outstanding performances within ISM frequency bands: power consumption lower to few nWatts, latency lower that few tens of µs, sensitivity reaching down to -60 dBm (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4 : “On-Off Keying” modulated RF signal (yellow) coded in the form of electrical pulses (green) by the WU radio.

Main objective of the overall activity is to provide solutions for Embedded Artificial Intelligence, by providing natural data that can be used by Edge Computing concept. Energy efficiency challenge is the priority.