Noise Analysis

Chapter 3
NOISE ANALYSIS
Course : ECE141 (Communications 1)

Chapter Contents
§ Electrical Noise, Interference and Distortion

§ Correlated and Uncorrelated Noise
§ External and Internal Noise
§ Signal – to – Noise Power Ratio
§ Noise Factor and Noise Figure
Noise
§ Noise is any undesired signal that ultimately appears in the output of a communications
system.
§ According to ITU, noise is any variable physical phenomenon apparently not
conveying information and which may be superimposed on, or combined with, an
intelligible signal.
§ 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.
TWO TYPES OF NOISE:

1. Correlated Noise – noise that exists when a signal is present.
2. Uncorrelated Noise – noise that exists regardless of whether there is a signal present or
not.
Chapter 3: Noise Analysis
UNCORRELATED NOISE
Uncorrelated Noise
Subdivided into 2 categories:
1. External Noise
o Present in a received radio signal that has been introduced in the
transmitting medium.
o Source - atmospheric, extraterrestrial and man-made
2. Internal Noise
o Introduced by the receiver itself.
o Electrical interference generated within a device i.e., create from the
communication equipment.
o Types – shot, transit time and thermal.
External Noise
1. Atmospheric Noise
o caused by naturally occurring disturbances in the earth’s atmosphere, with
lighting discharges being the most prominent contributors.
o Caused by naturally occurring disturbances in the earth’s atmosphere, with lighting
discharges being the most prominent contributors.
2. Extra-terrestrial Noise (Space Noise)

o Noise that consists of electrical signals that originate from outside’s Earth’s atmosphere.
o Subdivided into 2 categories:
a. Solar Noise – noise generated directly from the sun’s activity.
b. Cosmic Noise – noise that originate from nearby stars and galaxies.
3. Man-made Noise – generated by mankind i.e., equipment that produces sparks..

External Noise
4. Impulse Noise
o characterized by high amplitude peaks of short duration in the total noise
spectrum.
o 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
o Form of external noise; electrical interference occurs when info signals from one
source produce frequencies outside their allocated BW and interfere with other
info signal.
o Most interference occurs when harmonics or cross-product frequency from one
source fall into the passband of a neighboring channel.
Internal Noise
1. Shot Noise
o Produced in active devices such as transistors.
o Caused by a random arrival of carriers (holes & electrons) in the p-n junctions of
semiconductor. The carrier is not moving in continuous and steady flow i.e., it moves in a
random path of motion.
o Computed as:
Shot Noise (Example 1)
Calculate the shot noise component of the current present on the direct current of
1 mA flowing across a semiconductor junction, given that the effective noise
bandwidth is 1 MHz
Let: Idc = 1 mA
qe = 1.6 x 10-19
Bn = 1 MHz
In2 = (2)(1 mA) (1.6 x 10-19) (1 MHz)

In2 = 3.2 x 10-16 A2
In = 18 nA
Shot Noise (Example 2)
A diode noise generator is required to produce 10 µV of noise in a receiver with an

input impedance of 75 ohms resistive, and a noise power bandwidth of 200 kHz.
What must the current through the diode be?
Internal Noise
2. Partition Noise
o occurs wherever current divides between two or more electrodes and results
from the random fluctuation in the division.
3. Flicker Noise
o Associated with crystal surface defects in semiconductor and found in vacuum tubes.
o Is almost exactly 1/f for low frequency and is often referred to as pink noise.
4. Burst Noise
o Another low frequency noise that seems to be associated with heavy-metal ion
contamination.
o Produces popping sound if amplified in an audio system, hence the name popcorn
noise or 1/f2
Internal Noise
5. Transit-Time Noise
o occurs when the time taken by the charge carrier to cross a junction is
comparable to the period of the signal.
6. Thermal Noise
o Generated by the agitation and interaction of electrons in a current due to heat.
o Also known as white noise because thermal noise is equally distributed throughout the
frequency spectrum which is analogous to white light.
o Studied by J.B. Johnson, which is also termed as Johnson noise
CORRELATED NOISE
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.
§ Subdivided into 2 categories:

1. Harmonic Distortion
2. Intermodulation Distortion
Harmonic Distortion
§ Occurs when unwanted harmonics of a signal are produced through nonlinear
amplification or nonlinear mixing.
o Harmonics are integers of the original signal.
o The original signal is the 1st harmonic or the fundamental frequency.
o n x the original frequency is the nth harmonic
Harmonic Distortion
§ 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.
Harmonic Distortion
Example: Calculate the total harmonic distortion if the %2nd order and %3rd order
are 2.5% and 1.25% respectively and fundamental amplitude of 8 V. Compute the 2nd
and 3rd harmonics if the repetitive wave is measured to be 1 kHz.
fa = 1 kHz
2nd harmonic = 2fa = 2 (1 kHz) = 2 kHz
3rd harmonic = 3fa = 3 (1 kHz) = 3 kHz
Intermodulation Distortion
§ The generation of unwanted sum and difference frequencies produced when two
or more signals mix in a nonlinear device.
o The sum and difference frequencies are called cross product i.e., mathematically
o Unwanted cross-product frequencies can interfere with the information signals in a

communication system or with the information signal in another system.
NOISE CALCULATIONS
Noise Power and Spectrum Density
Noise Power and Spectrum Density
Example: Calculate the spectrum density and thermal noise power for a certain
communication system with an IF bandwidth of 10.7 MHz.
Noise Voltage Analysis
Addition of Noise Due to

Several Sources:
Example 1: An amplifier operating over a 5 MHz bandwidth has a 100 ohms input
resistance. It is operating at 27 degrees Celsius, has a voltage gain of 200, and an
input signal of 6 µVrms. Calculate the output rms noise.
Example 2: The resistor R1 and R2 are connected in series at 300K and 400K
temperatures, respectively. If R1 is 200 ohms and R2 is 300 ohms, find the power
produced at the load (RL = 500 ohms) over a bandwidth of 100 kHz.
Cascaded Amplifier
Equivalent Noise Resistance

Cascaded Amplifier
Example: The first stage of a two-stage

amplifier has a voltage gain of 10, a 600-ohm
resistor, a 1600-ohm equivalent noise resistance
and a 27 kilo-ohm output resistor. For the 2nd
stage, these values are 25, 81 kilo-ohms, 10 kilo-
ohms, and 1 mega-ohm, respectively. Calculate
the equivalent input-noise resistance.
Noise in Reactive Circuits
Noise in Reactive Circuits
Example: A parallel tuned circuit at the input of a radio receiver is tuned to

resonate at 125 MHz by a capacitance 23.5 pF. The Q-factor of the circuit is 40 and
with a channel bandwidth of the receiver limited to 10 kHz by the audio sections.
Determine the effective noise voltage of this radio receiver tuned circuit.
Signal-to-Noise Power Ratio, Noise Factor & Figure
Ideal Case (Ideal Amplifier) Noise Factor (F)

Figure of merit used to indicate how much
the SNR deteriorates as a signal passes
through a circuit
Practical Case (Non-Ideal Amplifier)
Noise Figure (NF)

Noise factor expressed in dB
For Cascaded Network

Equivalent Noise Temperature

The absolute temperature of a resistor
that, connected to the input of a
noiseless amplifier of the same gain,
would produce the same noise at the
output of a real amplifier
Equivalent Noise Temperature (cascaded)
Equivalent Noise Resistance Relationship between Teq and Req

Example:
FIN

Noise Analysis

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Chapter 3

Course : ECE141 (Communications 1)

§ Electrical Noise, Interference and Distortion

TWO TYPES OF NOISE:

2. Extra-terrestrial Noise (Space Noise)

3. Man-made Noise – generated by mankind i.e., equipment that produces sparks..

In2 = (2)(1 mA) (1.6 x 10-19) (1 MHz)

A diode noise generator is required to produce 10 µV of noise in a receiver with an

§ Subdivided into 2 categories:

o Unwanted cross-product frequencies can interfere with the information signals in a

Addition of Noise Due to

Equivalent Noise Resistance

Example: The first stage of a two-stage

Example: A parallel tuned circuit at the input of a radio receiver is tuned to

Ideal Case (Ideal Amplifier) Noise Factor (F)

Practical Case (Non-Ideal Amplifier)

Noise Figure (NF)

For Cascaded Network

Equivalent Noise Temperature

Equivalent Noise Temperature (cascaded)

Equivalent Noise Resistance Relationship between Teq and Req

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