NOISE SUMMARY

Communications

20. Noise is any random interference to a weak signal.

21. A measure of a receiver’s noise performance is its signal-to-noise (SIN) ratio.

22. External noise comes from industrial, atmospheric’, and space sources.

23. Industrial noise sources are ignitions, motors and generators, switching devices, and fluorescent lights.

24. Atmospheric noise comes from lightning and other sources.

25. Space noise comes from the sun as well as other stars and extraterrestrial sources.

26. Internal noise from electronic components also interferes with reception and can totally mask weak signals.

27. Most internal noise comes from thermal agitation-the random movement of electrons and atoms in a material
due to heat.

28. The thermal noise voltage across a resistor is proportional to the temperature, the bandwidth, and the
resistance value and can be computed with the expression Vn = square root of 4kTBR where k is Boltzmann’s
constant 1.38 x 10-23,T is the temperature in degrees kelvin, B is the bandwidth in hertz, and R is the resistance in
ohms.

29. Other types of internal noise are shot and transit-time noise in semiconductors.

30. Noise cannot be eliminated, but its effect can be minimized.

31. Noise performance of a receiver or circuit is expressed in terms of the noise figure F, also called the noise
factor, which is the ratio of the SIN input to the SIN output. It is usually given in decibels.

32. Noise performance of microwave components is usually expressed in terms of noise Temperature in degrees
Kelvin K = 290(F – 1).

33. Thermal noise is random and is often referred to as white noise or Johnson noise.

34. Since noise is a mixture of all random frequencies, its level can be reduced by narrowing the bandwidth.