Chapter 1 : Part 3

Noise

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Noise, interference and distortion
 Noise
 unwanted signals that coincide with the desired signals.
 Two type of noise: internal and external noise.

 Internal noise
 Caused by internal devices/components in the circuits.

 External noise
 noise that is generated outside the circuit.
 E.g. atmospheric noise, solar noise, cosmic noise, man made
noise.

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 External Noise
 Atmospheric noise:
 Caused by lightning discharges in thunderstorms and
other natural electric disturbances occurring in the
atmosphere
 Solar Noise:
 Normal condition, there is a constant noise radiation from
the sun, simply because large body at a very high frequency.
 Radiates over a very broad frequency spectrum.
 Cosmic Noise:
 Stars radiate RF noise in the same manner of sun.
 The noise received is called thermal noise and distributed
fairly uniformly over the entire sky.

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Noise, interference and distortion (Cont’d)

• Interference
 Contamination by extraneous signals from human sources.
 E.g. from other transmitters, power lines and machineries.
 Occurs most often in radio systems whose receiving antennas
usually intercept several signals at the same time
 One type of noise.

• Distortion
 Signals or waves perturbation caused by imperfect response of
the system to the desired signal itself.
 May be corrected or reduced with the help of equalizers.

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 Noise Temperature & Equivalent noise
Temperature
• Thermal noise directly proportional to temperature ~ can be
expressed in degrees, watts or volts.

P =kTB
n

Where
Pn @ N = noise power (Watt)
k = Boltzman constant (1.38 x 10-23 J/K)
T = environmental temperature (K) [Add 273 to C]
B = Bandwidth of system (Hz)

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 Cont’d…
• Equivalent noise temperature, (Te)
Te = T(F-1)
Where T = environmental temperature
(kelvin)
F = Noise factor
• Te often used in low noise, sophisticated radio
receivers rather than noise figure.

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 NOISE VOLTAGE
Noise Source
• Figure 1 shows the equivalent
VN/2
circuit for a thermal noise source.
RI
• Internal resistance RI in series VN  4 RkTB
VN R VN/2
with the rms noise voltage VN.
• For the worst condition, the load
resistance R = RI , noise voltage
dropped across R = half the noise Figure 1: Noise source equivalent circuit
source (VR=VN/2) and
The mathematical expression :
• From the final equation The
noise power PN , developed across
N  KTB 
VN / 2 
2

VN2
the load resistor = KTB R 4R
VN2  4 RKTB
VN  4 RKTB
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 Example 1
• Calculate the thermal noise power available
from any resistor at room temperature (290K)
for a bandwidth of 1 MHz. Calculate also the
corresponding noise voltage, given that R =
50.

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 Solution example1

23 15
PN  kTB  (1.38x10 )(290)(1M )  4 x10

VN  4kTBR  4(4 x10 15 )(50)  8.95x10 7

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 Example 2
• A domestic television receives antenna
delivers a sky noise power of -105 dBm to a
matched coaxial feeder in a radio frequency
bandwidth of 8 MHz. Find the antenna noise
temperature.

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Solution example 2

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 Example 3
For an electronic device operating at
temperature of 17oC with a bandwidth of 10
kHz, determine
a) Thermal noise power in watts and dBm
b) rms noise noise voltage for a 100  internal
resistance and 100  load resistance.

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 Solution example 3

PN  kTB  (1.38x10 23 )(17  273)(10k )  4 x10 17

 kTB   4 x10 17 

PN (dBm)  10 log 3   10 log 3
  -133.98dBm
 10   10 

VN  4kTBR  4(4 x10 17 )(100)  1.265x10 7

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 Example 4
• Calculate the input signal-to –noise ratio for
an amplifier with an output signal-to-noise
ratio of 16dB and noise figure of 5.4dB.

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 Solution example 4

NF (dB)  SNRin (dB)  SNRout (dB)

SNRin (dB)  NF (dB)  SNRout (dB)
SNRin (dB)  5.4dB  16dB  21.4dB

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 Insertion loss
• IL is a parameter associated with the frequencies
that fall within the passband of a filter.
• The ratio of the power transferred to a load with a
filter in the circuit to the power transferred to a load
without the filter.
IL (dB) = 10 log (Pout /Pin)

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 Signal to Noise Ratio (1)
 SNR is ratio of signal power, S to noise power, N.

S
SNR  10 log dB
N

 Noise Factor, F (unitless) Si N i

F
So N o

 Noise Figure, NF (dB)

NF  10 log F
Si N i
 10 log (dB)
So N o

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Signal to Noise Ratio (2)

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Noise Factor (Fn) for cascaded system
using Friss Formula

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 Example 5
For a nonideal amplifier with the following parameters:

Table 1
Determine the following:
1) Input Signal-to-Noise ratio (dB).
2) Output Signal-to-Noise ratio (dB).
3) Noise factor and noise figure.
4) Equivalent noise temperature

.
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 Solution example 5
(a) Input Signal-to-Noise ratio (dB).
S/N (dB) = 10 log (2.5 x 10-10 / 3 x 10-18) =79.2 dB

(b) Output Signal-to-Noise ratio (dB).

Nout = 1,000,000 (3 x 10-18) + 4.5 x 10-12 = 7.5 x 10-12 W
Pout = 1,000,000 (2.5 x 10-10) = 2.5 x 10-4 W

S/N (dB) = 10 log (2.5 x 10-4 / 7.5 x 10-12) = 75.2 dB

(c) Noise factor and noise figure.

Noise factor = input signal-to-noise ratio/output signal-to-noise ratio
= 83.33x106 / 33.33x106= 2.5

Noise figure = 10 log 2.5 = 3.979 dB

(d) Equivalent noise temperature.

Assume T0 = 290 K
Noise temperature = 290 (2.5 – 1) = 435 Kelvin.
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 Example 6
• Calculate the noise figure of the following
system:

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 ,
Solution example 6
 1   1 
   
F1  10  10 
 1.26 G1  10  10 
 0.79
,
 2   20 
   
F2  10  10 
 1.58 G2  10  10 
 100
 12 
 
F3  10  10 
 15.84
,

F2  1 F3  1
FT  F1  
G1 G1G2
1.58  1 15.84  1
FT  1.26    1.26  0.74  0.1878  2.1878
0.79 (0.79)(100)

NFT  10 log FT  10 log(2.188)  3.4dB

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