1.

7 Noise Representation, types & source

Definition any undesirable electrical energy that falls within the passband of the
signal.
Effect of noise on the electrical signal :

2 general categories of noise :

Correlated noise noise that exists only when a signal is present.
Uncorrelated noise noise that presents all the time whether there is a signal or not
Chapter 1 : Introduction to
Communications System

BEKC 3633 Communication System

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

1.7.1 Uncorrelated noise

2 general categories of uncorrelated noise :

1. External noise noise that generated outside the device or circuit.
Atmospheric noise
- naturally occurring electrical disturbances that originate within earths atmosphere such as lightning.
- also known as static electricity.

Extraterrestrial noise
- consists of electrical signal that originate from outside earths atmosphere and therefore also known as deepspace noise.
- 2 categories of extraterrestrial noise.
i solar noise noise that generated directly from the suns heat.
ii cosmic noise / black-body noise noise that is distributed throughout the galaxies.

Man-made noise
- noise that is produced by mankind.
- source : spark-producing mechanism (commutators in electrical motors, automobile ignition
systems, ac power generating/switching equipment, fluorescent lights).

1.7.1 Uncorrelated noise

2 general categories of uncorrelated noise :

2. Internal noise noise that generated within the device or circuit.
Shot noise
- caused by the random arrival of carriers (holes and electrons) at the output element of an
electronic device.
- shot noise is randomly varying and is superimposed onto any signal present.

Transit-time noise
- irregular, random variation due to any modification to a stream of carriers as they pass from the
input to the output of a device.
- this noise become noticeable when the time delay takes for a carrier to propagate through a
device is excessive.

1.7.1 Uncorrelated noise

2 general categories of uncorrelated noise :

2. Internal noise noise that generated within the device or circuit.
Thermal / random noise
- associated with the rapid and random movement of electrons within a conductor due to thermal
agitation.
- also known as Brownian noise, Johnson noise and white noise.
- uniformly distributed across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
- a form of additive noise, meaning that it cannot be eliminated, and it increase in intensity with
the number of devices and with circuit length.
- the most significant of all noise sources
- thermal noise power can be defined as follow :

N KTB
(6.1)

where N : noise power (watts)

B : bandwidth (Hertz)
T : absolute temperature (kelvin) .......... T = C + 273
4

1.7.1 Uncorrelated noise

Thermal / random noise

- equivalent circuit for a thermal noise source when the internal resistance of the source R 1 is in
series with the rms noise voltage VN

- for a worst case and maximum transfer of noise power, the load resistance R is made equal to
the internal resistance. Thus the noise power developed
across
2
2 the load resistor :

VN / 2
N KTB
R

VN

4R

(6.2)

V 4 RKTB

thus rms noise voltage can beNdefine as

System

(6.3)

1.7.2 Correlated noise

a form of internal noise that is correlated to the signal and cannot be present in a
circuit unless there is a signal.
produced by a nonlinear amplification resulting in nonlinear distortion.
there are 2 types of nonlinear distortion that create unwanted frequencies that
interfere with the signal and degrade the performance :
1. Harmonic distortion
occurs when unwanted harmonics of a signal are produced through nonlinear
amplification.
harmonics are integer multiples of the original signal. The original signal is the first
harmonic (fundamental harmonic), a frequency two times the fundamental frequency
is the second harmonic, three times is the third harmonic and so on.
Distortion measurements :

System

1.7.2 Correlated noise

1. Harmonic distortion
distortion measurements :
- Nth harmonic distortion = ratio of the rms amplitude of Nth harmonic to the rms amplitude of
the fundamental.
- Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)

vhigher
%THD (6.4)
100
vfundamental
where

vhigher

System

v 2 2 v 33 allvin4 4rmsvalue.
.... vn 2

1.7.2 Correlated noise

2. Intermodulation distortion
intermodulation distortion is the generation of unwanted sum and difference
frequencies produced when two or more signals mix in a nonlinear device (cross
products).
unwanted !

System

1.7.3 Other type of noise

1. Impulse noise
characterized by high amplitude peaks of short duration (sudden burst of irregularly
shaped pulses) in the total noise spectrum.
common source of impulse noise : transient produced from electromechanical switches
(relays and solenoids), electric motors, appliances, electric lights, power lines, poorquality solder joints and lightning.

2. Interference
electrical interference occurs when information signals from one source produces
frequencies that fall outside their allocated bandwidth and interfere with information
signal from another source.
most occurs in the radio frequency spectrum.

System

1.8 Noise Parameters

1.8.1 Signal-to-noise Power Ratio

signal-to-noise power ratio (S/N) is the ratio of the signal power level to the noise power level
and can be expressed as

S
Ps

N
Pn

(6.5)
in logarithmic function
(6.6)

S
Ps
( dB ) 10 log
N
Pn

in terms of voltages and resistance

(6.7)

Vs 2 / Rin
S

( dB ) 10 log
2
N
Vn / Rout

in the case Rin = Rout, (6.7) can be reduced to

(6.8)

System

S
Vs
( dB ) 20 log

N
Vn
10

1.8.2 Noise Factor and Noise Figure

Noise factor is the ratio of input signal-to-noise ratio to output signal-to-noise ratio
(6.9)

( S / N )in
( S / N ) out

Noise figure is the noise factor stated in dB and is a parameter to indicate the
quality of a receiver
(6.10)

( S / N )in

( S / N ) out

NF 10 log F 10 log

Noise Figure in Ideal and Non-ideal Amplifiers

- an electronic circuit amplifies signal and noise within its passband equally well
- in the case of ideal/noiseless amplifier, the input signal and the noise are
amplified equally.
- meaning that, signal-to-noise ratio at input = signal-to-noise ratio at output
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1.8.2 Noise Factor and Noise Figure

Noise Figure in Ideal and Non-ideal Amplifiers (continue)

- in reality, amplifiers are not ideal, adds internally generated noise to the
waveform, reducing the overall signal-to-noise ratio.

- in figure (a), the input and output S/N ratios are equal.

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1.8.2 Noise Factor and Noise Figure

Noise Figure in Ideal and Non-ideal Amplifiers (continue)

- in figure (b), the circuits add internally generated noise N d to the waveform,
causing the output signal-to-noise ratio to be less than the input signal-to-noise
ratio.

Chapter 5 : Digital Communication

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1.8.2 Noise Factor (F) and Noise Figure (NF)

Noise Figure in Cascaded Amplifier

- when two or more amplifiers are cascaded as shown in the following figure,
the total noise factor is the accumulation of the individual noise factors.
- Friss formula is used to calculate the total noise factor of several cascade
amplifiers FT F 1 F 2 1 F 3 1 ... FN 1
A1 (6.11)
A1 A2
A1 A2... AN

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1.8.2 Noise Factor and Noise Figure

Noise Figure in Cascaded Amplifier (continue)

- the Total Noise Figure
(6.12)

NFT 10 log FT

When using Friss formula, the noise figures must

be converted to noise factors !!!

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1.9 Examples

Ex 1 : Convert the following temperatures to Kelvin : 100 C, 0 C and -10 C.

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1.9 Examples

Ex 2 : For and electronic device operating at a temperature of 17 C, with a

bandwidth of 10 kHz, determine
a. thermal noise power in watts and dBm.
b. rms noise voltage for a 100 load resisstance.

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1.9 Examples

Ex 3 : For an amplifier with an output signal power of 10 W and output noise

power of 0.01 W, determine the signal-to-noise power ratio.

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1.9 Examples

Ex 4 : For an amplifier with an output signal voltage of 4V, an output noise

voltage 0.005 V and an input and output resistance of 50 , determine the signal-tonoise power ratio.

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1.9 Examples

Ex 5 : For a non-ideal amplifier with a following parameters, determine

a. input S/N ratio (dB)
b. output S/N ratio (dB)
c. noise factor and noise figure
Input signal power = 2 x 10-10 W
Input noise power = 2 x 10-18 W
Power gain = 1000000
Internal noise Nd = 6 x 10-12 W

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1.9 Examples

Ex 6 : For 3 cascaded amplifier stages, each with a noise figures of 3 dB and

power gain of 10dB, determine the total noise factor and noise figure.

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