The use of DFT windows in signal-to-noise ratio and harmonic distortion computations

The discrete Fourier transform (DFT) can be used to compute the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and harmonic distortion of a waveform recorder. When the data record contains a non-integer number of cycles of the sine wave, energy leaks from the sine wave and its harmonics to adjacent frequencies. A.L. Benetazzo et al. (1992) describe a windowed DFT method for computing the RMS value of a sine wave from the magnitude of the main lobe of its DFT and recommend the use of minimum energy windows. We present criteria for choosing the DFT window. A constraint for the window coefficients is derived to insure that quantization error does not influence the estimate of the amplitude of a sine wave from the main lobe of its DFT.>