A Bistable Microelectronic Circuit for Sensing an Extremely Low Electric Field

Bistable systems are prevalently found in many sensor systems. It is well established that a well-designed coupling scheme, together with an appropriate choice of initial conditions, can induce oscillations (i.e. periodic switching between stable fixed points) in over-damped bistable dynamical systems when a control parameter exceeds a threshold value. This behavior was demonstrated in a specific prototype system comprised of three unidirectionally coupled ferromagnetic cores, the basis of a coupled core fluxgate magnetometer. Another prototypical (quartic potential based) system of coupled over-damped Duffing elements has been applied to describe the dynamics of the polarization inside a ferroelectric material, the basis of an electric-field sensor currently under development.