NOISE ANALYSIS
Noise Analysis
Noise is any undesired signal that ultimately appears in the
output of a communications system.
Electrical noise is defined as any undesirable electrical energy
that falls within the passband of the signal.
Electrical noise may be said to be the introduction of any
unwanted energy, which tend to interfere with the proper
reception and reproduction of transmitted signals.
2 types of noise:
Correlated – exist when a signal is present.
Uncorrelated – exist regardless of whether there is a signal
present or not.
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Uncorrelated Noise
Subdivided into 2 categories:
External Noise
Present in a received radio signal that has been
introduced in the transmitting medium.
Source - atmospheric, extraterrestrial and man-made
Internal Noise
Introduced by the receiver itself.
Electrical interference generated within a device i.e
create from the communication equipment.
Type – shot, transit time and thermal.
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External Noise
1. Atmospheric Noise
Caused by naturally occurring disturbances in the earth’s atmosphere,
with lighting discharges being the most prominent contributors.
It is often in the form of impulse that spread energy throughout a wide
range of freq.
2. Extraterrestrial Noise (Space Noise)
Originates from outside earth’s atmosphere (outer space), also call
deep-space noise.
Sub-divided into 2 categories:
Solar noise – generated from the sun’s heat. The sun radiates a
broad spectrum of freq, including those which are used for
broadcasting.
Cosmic noise – originating from stars other than the sun.
3. Human-made Noise
Produce by mankind. Generated by equipment that produces sparks.
Eg. Automobile engine, switching equipment, fluorescent light.
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External Noise
4. Impulse Noise (spikes) – characterized by high amplitude peaks
of short duration in the total noise spectrum.
Consists of sudden burst of irregularly shaped pulses that
generally last between a few milliseconds.
Some of the sources of impulse noise are voltage changes in
adjacent lines, lightning flashes during thunderstorms and
fluorescent lights.
5. Interference – form of external noise.
Electrical interference occurs when info signals from one source
produce freqs outside their allocated BW and interfere with other
info signal.
Most interference occurs when harmonics or cross-product freq
from one source fall into the passband of a neighboring channel.
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Internal Noise
1. Shot Noise
Produced in active devices such as transistors.
Caused by a random arrival of carriers (holes & electrons) in the pn
junctions of semiconductor.
The carrier is not moving in continuous and steady flow i.e it moves
in a random path of motion.
2. Transit-time Noise
Noise produced in semiconductors when the transit time of the
carriers crossing a junction is close to the signal's period and some of
the carriers diffuse back to the source or emitter of the
semiconductor.
i.e Due to any modification to a stream of carriers as they pass form
input to the output of a device (from emitter to collector).
Time taken for the carrier to propagate through a device produces
irregular and random variation of noise.
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Internal Noise
3. Thermal Noise (White Noise or Johnson Noise)
Generated by the agitation and interaction of electrons in a conductor due to
heat.
Thermal Noise Power, N = KTB
where N = noise power (W)
K = Boltzmann’s contant (1.38 x 10-23 Joules/Kelvin)
T = absolute temperature (Kelvin), and T= C + 273
B = bandwidth (Hz)
Thermal Noise Power in dBm,
Thermal Noise – dependent on temperature. KTB
N
White Noise – another name for thermal noise
10 log dBm content
dBm because its frequency
0.001
is uniform across spectrum.
Johnson Noise – another name for thermal noise, first studied by J.B.
Johnson.
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Internal Noise
For worst case and max noise
power transfer,
RI = R. Thus, VR = VN/2 = VL
The rms noise voltage, VN that
appears across a resistor at
temperature T is:
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Example 1
For an electronic device operating at a temperature
of 27C over a 1 MHz frequency range, determine
a. thermal noise power in watts and dBm
b. rms noise voltage for a 100 resistance
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Example 2
The noise produced by a resistor is to be amplified by a
noiseless amplifier having a voltage gain of 75 and a
bandwidth of 100 kHz. A sensitive meter at the output
reads 240 µV rms. Assuming operation at 37°C, calculate
the resistor’s resistance. If the bandwidth were cut to 25
kHz, determine the expected output meter reading.
Solution
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Correlated Noise
It is a form of internal noise that is correlated to the signal and
cannot be present in a circuit unless there is a signal i.e – NO
SIGNAL, NO NOISE!
Produced by nonlinear amplification and includes harmonic and
intermodulation distortion, both of which are forms of nonlinear
distortion.
Nonlinear distortion creates unwanted frequencies that
interfere with the signal and degrade performance
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Correlated Noise
Harmonic distortion (Amplitude Distortion) occurs when
unwanted harmonics of a signal are produced through nonlinear
amplification (nonlinear mixing).
Harmonics are integer multiples of the original signal.
The original signal = first harmonic = fundamental frequency.
2 x the original signal freq is called the second harmonic, ..
n x original signal freq = nth harmonic.
Figure: Correlated Noise (Harmonic Distortion)
Note – from Figure, the output spectrum contains the original input freq plus several harmonics (2f1,
3f1, 4f1) that were not part of the original signal. 12
Correlated Noise
Total Harmonic Distortion, THD is the ratio of the quadratic
sum of the rms values of all the higher harmonics to the rms
value of the fundamental.
vhigher
%THD = 100
v fundamental
where vhigher = v22 v32 v42 ... vn2
vfundamental = rms voltage of fundamental freq
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Example 3 – Determine
a. 2nd, 3rd and 12th harmonics for a 1 kHz repetitive
wave.
b. Percent second-order, third-order and total
harmonic distortion for a fundamental frequency
with an amplitude of 8Vrms, a second harmonic
amplitude of 0.2Vrms, and a third harmonic
amplitude of 0.1Vrms.
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Correlated Noise
Intermodulation distortion is the generation of unwanted sum and difference frequencies
produced when two or more signals mix in a nonlinear device.
The sum and difference freq are called cross product i.e mathematically
Cross product =
where f1, f2 = fundamental frequencies, f1 > f2
m,n = positive integers
Unwanted cross-product frequency can interfere with the info signals in a circuit or with the
info signal in other circuit mf1 nf 2
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Figure: Correlated Noise (Intermodulation Distortion)
Example 4 - For a non linear amplifier with two
input frequencies, 3 kHz and 8 kHz, determine
a. First three harmonics present in the output for
each input frequency.
b. Cross-product frequencies produced for values of m
and n of 1 and 2.
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INTERFERENCE
Form of external noise
“to disturb or to detract from”
Electrical interference : When information signal
from one source produce frequencies that fall
outside their allocated bandwidth and interfere
with information signals from other source.
Most interference occurs when harmonics or cross
product frequencies from 1 source fall into the
passband of a neighboring channel
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Noise Summary
NOISE
CORRELATED UNCORRELATED
(Internal)
Nonlinear distortion External Internal
o Harmonic o Atmospheric o Thermal
o Intermodulation o Extraterrestrial o Shot
Solar o Transient-time
Cosmic
o Man-made
o Impulse
o Interference
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