Rice-Distributed Signal Plus Noise in RF Receivers: Extraction of the Signal Amplitude - Spectrum Analyzer Applications

Nowadays spectrum analyzers permit to achieve relatively simple real time data processing of the input signal. In the near future complex mathematical routines shall be more and more easily implemented using the numerical processing capabilities incorporated into the modern instrument architectures. In this work is demonstrated that the detection and measurement accuracy of the amplitude of a weak signal in the equivalent noise at the input of a spectrum analyzer can be dramatically enhanced employing signal processing techniques. The feasibility of the signal amplitude estimation method is experimentally demonstrated through an application to real world data.