averager

An averager is a type of ADC digitizer that acquires multiple repetitions of the same signal and calculates their average before transferring the data to the host computer. Averaging reduces random noise and improves the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), making weak repetitive signals easier to detect. Since random noise decreases approximately with the square root of the number of averaged acquisitions, averaging is widely used whenever identical signals can be measured repeatedly.

Hardware averaging significantly reduces the amount of data that must be transferred and stored. However, it also discards the individual waveforms, preventing pulse-by-pulse analysis, event selection, digital filtering, and other post-processing techniques that may further improve measurement quality or reveal rare events.

Typical applications include digital oscilloscopes, spectroscopy, ultrasound imaging, radar, lidar, and other experiments involving repetitive signals.

Rather than performing averaging directly in hardware, the cronologic Ndigo6G combines high-speed continuous streaming with integrated zero suppression. This approach preserves the individual pulse data while significantly reducing the amount of transferred data. Users can implement averaging—or more advanced processing such as pulse selection, baseline correction, or custom analysis—in their own software. Hardware averaging can also be implemented for applications where minimizing data throughput is the primary objective.