On the Enhancement of the SNR of Repetitive Signals by Digital Averaging

A simplified technique to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of repetitive signals by digital averaging is presented. The technique uses a threshold detector and a memory instead of the analog-to-digital converter and memory, which is the common practice. It is shown that if the SNR of the measurements is small and the number of averaged measurements is large then the SNR of the resulting signal is smaller but comparable to that obtained by the usual procedure. The nonlinear distortion introduced by the process is also discussed.