Supercritical stability in a sonar receiver circuit

—We describe a simple circuit, inspired by the human auditory system, which allows controllable supercritical stability in a sonar receiver. The receiver is held on the threshold of self-oscillation when signal levels are low. The effect is to improve the sensitivity and SNR for small and subthreshold signals, at the cost of some bandwidth, while providing unchanged bandwidth and sensitivity at higher signal levels.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ISCAS
• Authors: Jonathan Tapson
• Keywords: Controllable Supercritical Stability, Human Auditory System, ISCAS 2006, Signal Levels