Today we tried the Schmitt trigger DFD, and while it works it does not improve the noise performance.  At least part of our problem is coming from the discrete nature of our DFD algorithm, so I would propose that an industrious day job person codes up a new DFD which avoids switching.  We can probably do this by mixing the input signal (after high-passing) with a time-delayed copy of itself... as we do now, but without the comparator.  This has the disadvantage of giving an amplitude dependent output, but since we are working in the digital land we can DIVIDE.  If we mix the signal with itself (without delay) to get a rectified version, and low-pass it a little, we can use this for normalization.  The net result should be something like:

output = LP2[ s(t) * s(t - dt) / LP1[ s(t) * s(t) ]],

where s(t) is the high-passed input and LP is a low-pass filter.  Remember not to divide by zero.