THRESHOLD EFFECT

The loss of message in envelope detector

that operates at a low carrier-to-noise ratio is
referred to as threshold effect.

By threshold we mean a value of the carrier-tonoise ratio below which the noise performance of
a detector deteriorates much more rapidly than
the proportionately to carrier-to-noise ratio.
It is important to recognize that every non-linear
detector (e.g., envelope detector) exhibits
threshold effect.

When carrier to noise ratio is small compared to

unity,
the
noise
term
dominates
and
performance of the envelope detector changes
completely. So noise in this case can be
represented by following equation :

The phasor diagram of the detector input is as

shown below: