Voltage comparator circuit

Claim 1

A VOLTAGE COMPARATOR CIRCUIT COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION: A PAIR OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES EACH HAVING A CHARACTERISTIC I-V CURVE EXHIBITING A CURRENT BREAKOVER LEVEL AND A NEGATIVE RESISTANCE REGION FOR A PRESELECTED FORWARD VOLTAGE THEREACROSS; EACH SAID DEVICE HAVING A REVERSE BREAKDOWN LEVEL OF LARGER MAGNITUDE THAN SAID FORWARD VOLTAGE FOR A PRESELECTED REVERSE VOLTAGE THEREACROSS; MEANS FOR CONNECTING SAID SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES IN CIRCUIT RELATIONSHIP WITH MUTUALLY OPPOSITE TERMINALS BEING COMMONLY COUPLED TOGETHER; MEANS FOR CONNECTING AN ALTERNATING WAVEFORM HAVING A SUBSTANTIALLY CONSTANT AMPLITUDE ACROSS SAID SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES, SAID CONSTANT AMPLITUDE SELECTED TO BE A PREDETERMINED AMOUNT LESS THAN THE CURRENT BREAKOVER LEVELS OF SAID DEVICES; MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN INPUT SIGNAL AND A REFERENCE VALUE FOR PROVIDING A SIGNAL HAVING A MAGNITUDE PROPORTIONAL TO THE DIFFERENCE AND A POLARITY DETERMINED BY THEIR RELATIVE MAGNITUDES; MEANS FOR COMBINING SAID ALTERNATING WAVEFORM AND SAID DIFFERENCE SIGNAL ACROSS SAID SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES WHEREBY THE COMBINATION SELECTIVELY EXCEEDS THE CURRENT BREAKOVER LEVEL OF SAID SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE POLARITY OF SAID DIFFERENCE SIGNAL; AND OUTPUT MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE REDUCTION IN CURRENT THROUGH ONE OF SAID DEVICES AS THE COMBINATION EXCEEDS ITS CURRENT BREAKOVER LEVEL.