 Clipped waveform area

A clipped waveform area is the integral of an amplitude-limited trace over the specified interval. It can differ from the unclipped area by a different proportion than the change in peak height. The amplifier clipping article gives the instantaneous limiter model and a rectangular-pulse example; real saturated integrators can also have recovery dynamics.^[ref]

An original triangular example takes $v(t)=A\max (1-|t|/T,0)$ with $A>0$. Its true area is $AT$. Clip its top at $0<L<A$, with the zero baseline unchanged. The missing region is a triangle of height $A-L$ and base $2T(1-L/A)$, soFor $A=4\mathrm{V}$, $L=2\mathrm{V}$ and $T=1\mathrm{ms}$, the area falls from $4$ to $3\mathrm{V}\mathrm{ms}$. The peak is halved but the area loses only $25\%$. The clipping loss for a triangular pulse therefore cannot be inferred merely by applying the peak-loss percentage to its integral.

Record input and output together while changing gain or attenuation to test whether the trace is clipped. Recovering area by fitting an assumed triangle is a model-based correction, not recovery of an arbitrary waveform from its plateau. Baseline errors, limited bandwidth and overload recovery require their own measurement models.