POWER LEVEL in dBm and dBW

Circuit gains and losses are usually expressed in dB and

we can operate on the power levels using very simple
arithmetic once the conversion has been calculated.
Example 5-4:
A receiver antenna has an output voltage of 10
mV (carrier only) when connected to a 50W
receiver.
1. Determine the power level in dBW and dBm.
2. The receiver has one RF amplifier with 10 dB of
gain, mixer with 6dB of conversion loss, followed
by a multipole filter with 1 dB of insertion loss.
If available IF amplifiers gave 20dB of gain each,
determine the number of IF amplifiers necessary
to provide at least 0 dBm (1 mW) to the detector.
3. Sketch a block diagram of a superheterodyne AM
receiver showing the power level, in dBm, at
each block.
POWER LEVEL in dBm and dBW
POWER LEVEL in dBm and dBW
Solution:
1. P = (10 x 10
-6
V)
2
/ 50W = 2 x 10
-12
W = 2 pW.
P(dBW) = 10log(2x10
-12
W/1W) = -117 dBW.
P(dBm) = 10log(2x10
-12
W/10
-3
W) = -87 dBm.
2. With a 10-dB gain, the RF amplifier output will be
87dBm
+ 10dB = 77dBm. Following 6dB of loss due to the mixer
and 1dB of filter insertion loss in the passband, the IF
input
power will be
P(dBm) = -77dBm + (-7dB) = -84 dBm.
The IF system must provide an overall gain of P
o
/P
i
or
P
o
(dBm) - P
i
(dBm) = 0 dBm - (-84 dBm) = 84 dB.
At 20 dB/stage, we need five IF amplifiers, one of which
requires only 4 dB of gain.
3. The completed block diagram is shown in Figure 5-21.
POWER LEVEL in dBm and dBW
Figure 5-21. Signal-level distribution in superhet receiver with
10-mV (-87-dBm) input. The gain of IF
5
has been adjusted to
provide 1-mW at the detector.