CHAPTER 6

NOISE

INTRODUCTION
Noise is random energy that interfere
with the information signal.
Noise may be defined as any unwanted
introduction of energy tending to
interfere with the proper reception and
reproduction of transmitted signal.
In radio receiver, noise may produce hiss
in the loudspeaker output.
Noise can limit the range of systems.
It affects the sensitivity of the receiver.
NOISE
Electrical noise any undesirable that falls within
the passband of the signal.
Figure 4 show the effect of noise on electrical
noise.
2 general categories
Correlated noise implies relationship between
the signal and the noise, exist only when signal
is present.
Uncorrelated noise present at all time,
whether there is signal or not.

Classification of
Uncorrelated Noise
NOISE
EXTERNAL INTERNAL
ATMOSPHERIC
NOISE
EXTRATERRESTRIAL
NOISE
INDUSTRIAL
NOISE
THERMAL
NOISE
SHOT
NOISE
Figure 6.1
ATMOSPHERIC NOISE
Caused by lightning discharges in thunderstorms and other
natural electric disturbances occurring in the atmosphere.
Consist of spurious radio signal with components distributed
over a wide range of frequencies.
It propagates over the earth in the same way as ordinary
radio waves of the same frequencies.
Become less severe at frequencies above 30MHz because:
The higher frequencies are limited to line-of-sight
propagation.
Nature of the mechanism generating this noise is such
that very little of it is created in the VHF range and
above.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL NOISE
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.

INDUSTRIAL NOISE
Between 1 to 600 MHz, the intensity noise
made by humans easily outstrips that
created by any other source to the
receiver.
Sources such as: automobile, aircraft,
electric motors and other heavy machine.
The nature of industrial noise is so
variable that it is difficult to analyze.
SHOT NOISE
Caused by the random arrival of carriers
at the output element of an electronic
device.
First observed in the anode current of a
vacuum-tube amplifier.
The current carriers are not moving in
continuous steady flow.
Randomly varying and superimposed onto
any signal present.
Sometimes called transistor noise.
THERMAL NOISE
Is associated with the rapid and random
movement of electrons within a conductor
due to thermal agitation.
Present in all electronic component and
communications systems.
Referred as white noise.
Is a form of additive noise, cannot be
eliminated.
It increases in intensity with the number
of devices in a circuit.
Thermal noise power is proportional to the
product of bandwidth and temperature.
Mathematically, noise power is

N=KTB

N = noise power,
K=Boltzmanns constant (1.38x10
-23
J/K)
B = bandwidth,
T = absolute temperature (Kelvin)(17
o
C or
290K)

NOISE VOLTAGE


4
N
V RkTB
V
N
/2
V
N
/2
V
N R
R
I
Noise Source
Figure 4.2 shows the equivalent
circuit for a thermal noise source.
Internal resistance R
I
in series
with the rms noise voltage V
N
.
For the worst condition, the load
resistance R = R
I
, noise voltage
dropped across R = half the noise
source (V
R
=V
N
/2) and
From the final equation The
noise power P
N
, developed across
the load resistor = KTB

The mathematical expression :






RKTB V
RKTB V
R
V
R
V
KTB N
N
N
N N
4
4
4
2 /
2
2
2

Figure 6.2 : Noise source
equivalent circuit
Example 1
Convert the following temperatures
to kelvin:
a) 100C
b) 0C
c) -10C

T=aC+273C
Example 2

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.


Example 3
For an electronic device operating at
a temperature of 17
o
C 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.

Example 4

Two resistor of 20k and 50 k are
at room temperature (290K). For a
bandwidth of 100kHz, calculate the
thermal noise voltage generated by
1. each resistor
2. the two resistor in series
3. the two resistor in parallel


Correlated Noise
Form of internal noise that is correlated
to the signal and cannot be present in a
circuit unless there is a signal.
Produced by nonlinear amplification.
All circuits are nonlinear therefore, they
all produce nonlinear distortion.
Nonlinear distortion creates unwanted
frequencies that interfere with the signal
and degrade performance.
Intermodulation Distortion
Generation of unwanted sum and
difference frequencies produced when two
or more signals mix in a nonlinear device.
The sum and difference frequencies are
called cross products.
Unwanted cross products can interfere
with the information signal.
Cross products are produced when
harmonics as well as fundamental
frequency mix in a nonlinear device.
Cont..
Cross products = mf
1
nf
2
.
F1 and f2 are fundamental frequency.
F1>f2
M and n are positive integer.
Correlated Noise-
Intermodulation Distortion
f1 f2
V1 V2
f1
f2 f1-f2 f1+f2
V1 V2
V
difference
V
sum
Input frequency spectrum Output frequency spectrum
Figure 6.4
Example 6
For a nonlinear amplifier with 2 input
frequencies, 3kHz and 8kHz,
determine:
a) First 3 harmonics present in the
output for each input frequency.
b) Cross-product frequencies
produced for values of m and n of 1
and 2.
Interference
Form of external noise.
Means to disturb or detract from.
Electrical interference is when
information signals from one source
produce frequencies that fall outside their
allocated bandwidth and interfere with
information signals form another source.
Most interference occur when harmonics
frequencies from one source fall into the
passband of a neighboring channel.
Review Notes
Gain
Attenuation
Both has the ratio output to the input.
in
out
V
V
V
input
output
A
Figure 6.5
Gain
Ratio output to the input.
Output has greater amplitude than the
input



Most amplifiers are power amplifier, the
same procedure can be used to calculate
power gain, A
p
.
A
p
= P
out
/P
in

Figure 6.6
Attenuation
Refers to loss introduced
by a circuit.
Output is less than input.


For cascade circuit, total
attenuation is,
A
T
=A
1
x A
2
x A
3
..
Voltage divider network
may introduce
attenuation.
in
out
V
V
A n Attenuatio
Figure 4.7 Voltage divider
introduces attenuation
Attenuation can be offset by
introducing gain.

Figure 6.8 Total attenuation in cascaded network
Figure 6.9 Gain offsets the
attenuation
Figure 6.10 Total gain is the product of the individual stage gains and attenuation
Example 7
What is the gain of an amplifier that
produces an output of 750 mV for 30 V
input?

Example 8
The power output of an amplifier is 6 W. The
power gain is 80. What is the input power?

Example 9
Three cascade amplifier have power gains of
5,2, and 17. The input power is 40 mW. What
is the output power?
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
Ratio of the signal power level to the
noise power level.



Express in logarithmic function:

n
s
P
P
SNR
n
s
P
P
dB SNR log 10 ) (
Example 10
1 For an amplifier with an output signal
power of 10W and an output noise power
of 0.01W, determine the SNR.
2 For an amplifier with an output signal
voltage of 4V, an output noise voltage of
0.005V and an input and output
resistance of 50, determine the SNR.
Noise Factor (F) and Noise
Figure (NF)
Figures of merit used to indicate how
much the SNR deteriorates as a signal
passes through a circuit.
Noise factor is simply a ratio of input
SNR to output SNR.
SNR output
SNR input
F
Cont..
NF is noise factor stated in dB.
Used to indicate the quality of a receiver.

SNR output
SNR input
dB NF log 10 ) (
F dB NF log 10 ) (
Ideal Noiseless Amplifier
i
i
N
S
in power Noise
in power Signal

Ideal Noiseless Amplifier

Ap=power gain
i
i
i p
i p
N
S
N A
S A
in power Signal
out power Signal

Figure 6.11
Non ideal amplifier
i
i
N
S
in power Noise
in power Signal

Nonideal amplifier
Ap=power gain
Nd=internally generated noise
p
d
i
i
d i p
i p
A
N
N
S
N N A
S A
in power Signal
out power Signal

Figure 6.12
Example 11
For a nonlinear amplifier and the following
parameter, determine:
a) Input SNR(dB)
b) Output SNR(dB)
c) Noise Factor and Noise Figure
Input signal power=2x10
-10
W
Input Noise power=2x10
-18
W
Power gain=1,000,000
Internal noise (Nd)=6x10
-12
W
Noise Figure of Cascaded
Amplifier
i
i
N
S
T
i
i
o
o
NF
N
S
N
S

Ap1
NF1
Ap2
NF2
Ap3
NF3
Input
Output
i
i
N
S
Figure 6.13
Cont..
Total noise factor is the accumulation of
the individual noise factor.
Friisss formula is used to calculate the
total noise factor of several cascaded
amplifiers.
n
n
T
A A A
F
A A
F
A
F
F F

2 1 2 1
3
1
2
1
1 1 1

Example 12
For 3 cascaded amplifier stages,
each with noise figure of 3 dB and
power gain of 10 dB, determine the
total noise figure.
Equivalent Noise
Temperature (T
e
)
Hypothetical value that cannot be directly
measured.
To indicates the reduction in the SNR a signal
undergoes as it propagates through a receiver.
The lower Te is the better quality of a receiver.

1 F T T
e
T
T
F
e
1
Example 13
Determine:
a) Noise Figure for an equivalent noise
temperature of 75K.
b) Equivalent noise temperature for a
noise figure of 6dB.
Example 14

A voltage divider shown in Figure 6.9 has
values of R
1
= 10k and R
2
= 47k.
1. What is the attenuation?
2.What amplifier gain would you need to
offset the loss for an overall gain of 1?
Example 15

An amplifier has gain of 45,000, which is too
much for the amplification. With an input
voltage of 20 V, what attenuation factor is
needed to keep the output voltage from
exceeding 100mV?. Let A
1
= amplifier gain =
45,000; A
2
= attenuation factor; A
T
= total
gain.
Example 16
A RF sine wave generator whose output impedance is
50 is connected to a 50 load using 50 coaxial
cable. The generators output amplitude level is set
to + 3 dBm. An rms voltmeter is used to measure the
effective voltage, and an oscilloscope is used to
display the sine wave. Compute the following:

1. The rms voltage measure by the rms voltmeter
2. The peak voltage, V
p
of the sine wave that should be
displayed on the oscilloscope.
3. The peak-to-peak voltage, V
p-p
of the sine wave that
should be displayed on the oscilloscope
Example 17

The input signal to a telecommunications
receiver consists of 100W of signal power
and 1W of noise power. The receiver
contributes an additional 80W of noise, N
D
,
and has a power gain of 20 dB. Compute the
input SNR, the output SNR and the
receivers noise figure.