The present disclosure relates generally to patient monitoring systems and, more particularly, to signal analysis for patient monitoring systems. In one embodiment, a method of analyzing a detector signal of a physiological patient sensor includes obtaining the detector signal from the physiological patient sensor, and determining a ratio of the signal between two or more channels. A distribution of the angles between the points of the ratio over time may be used to determine a true ratio or a ratio of ratios for use in the determination of a physiological parameter.