Detecting thresholds by means of jump-phenomena

In this paper a simple electronic circuit for detecting thresholds of voltage or current signals is presented. The basic idea is to use an typical nonlinear dynamic behavior-the jump phenomenon. This phenomenon is based on the fold-bifurcation. This bifurcation is characterized by two bifurcation points and a parameter range enclosing two stable solutions and one unstable solution. Increasing the parameter steadily, the system quantity changes rapidly by crossing the bifurcation points. This behavior can be used to detect distinctive values of input signals. The resulting electronic circuit consists of a simple structure: an integrator circuit and a feedback loop containing a nonlinear transfer function