Signal-to-Noise Ratio in the Bandpass Output of a Discriminator

A formula is derived for the output signal-to-noise power ratio from a limiter-discriminator that is followed by an ideal (rectangular) bandpass filter. This signal-to-noise ratio is shown to be inversely proportional to the difference between the cube of the upper cutoff frequency and the cube of the lower cutoff frequency. The formula commonly utilized by designers for the discriminator output signal-to-noise ratio was derived for the case of a lowpass filter on the discriminator output. The bandpass and low-pass formulas are compared to indicate 1) the advantage of bandpass filtering for the discriminator output, and 2) the error incurred if the designer employs the low-pass formula to evaluate the performance of a bandpass filter design. Finally, the accuracy of a narrow-band approximation for the bandpass formula is evaluated.