Nonlinear sensor driven by chaotic dynamics

Abstract:
Conventional bistable sensors and recently developed noise activated nonlinear dynamic sensors use external bias signal or the noise to drive their response between two states. Here, we present experimental results of dc voltage and the resistance measurements by nonlinear sensor based on electronic Chua's circuit operating in a chaotic regime where double scroll attractor exists. This sensor is driven only by chaotic dynamics. The output of the sensor is quantified by the average value of the sequence of samples representing dynamic trajectory, the mean residence time in a part of the attractor and by the number of crossings between different parts of the attractor per second. The usefulness of each output coding scheme is discussed. Our results may be useful for temperature or light intensity measurements using thermistors or photoresistor and for understanding the neuronal activity by identifying trajectory crossings with spikes.