Sample and hold

In electronics, a sample and hold (S/H, also "follow-and-hold") circuit is an analog device that samples (captures, grabs) the voltage of a continuously varying analog signal and holds (locks, freezes) its value at a constant level for a specified minimum period of time. Sample and hold circuits and related peak detectors are the elementary analog memory devices. They are typically used in analog-to-digital converters to eliminate variations in input signal that can corrupt the conversion process.