A probabilistic approach to the threshold error reduction theory in bistable measurement devices

The notion of noise activated system has been well known since the 1950s. A lot of natural phenomena have been investigated by means of this theory. The improvement of several system performances have been performed as well. One of the most important techniques based on noisy forcing signal is the well known dithering. In particular it has been used for improving the performances in A/D converters. Recently the stochastic resonance phenomenon (SR) has been introduced as an innovative approach for both understanding the behaviour and improving the performances of bistable systems. In this work a new approach to the SR theory is reported in order to investigate the influence of forcing signal parameters on the persistence of the SR condition. Both theoretical results and simulations have been carried out in order to emphasise the suitability of the proposed methodology.