How do you convert sine wave to a square wave?

Question

How do you convert sine wave to a square wave?

Answer 1

If you need a TTL signal, use a schmidt trigger.

If you need a higher voltage square wave with accurate duty cycle, use a comparator to detect zero crossing.

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Answer 2

Overdrive an amplifier to the clipping (B)stage.

Answer 3

Depends on where you are.

If you're in a place where there are opamps & such, then maybe use a comparator, which is basically a high gain amplifier.  Change the threshold (other input) & you'll change the mark-space ratio.

If you are in a similar place but don't need the same phase relationship, you could maybe improve things with a schmitt trigger.  Having hysteresis it will have better noise immunity, but also shift the output compared to the sine wave.

If you are in a maths world, maybe look up heaviside, or signum function, maybe "sign" if you are in matlab.

Any help?