Noise (electronics)

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This article is about fundamental noise processes in electronics. For electronic noise arising from
outside sources, see electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic interference. For acoustic
noise due to electromagnetic fields, see electromagnetically induced acoustic noise and vibration.
For other uses, see Noise (disambiguation).

Analog display of random fluctuations in voltage in pink noise.

In electronics, noise is an unwanted disturbance in an electrical signal.  Noise generated by

[1]:5

electronic devices varies greatly as it is produced by several different effects.

In communication systems, noise is an error or undesired random disturbance of a useful
information signal. The noise is a summation of unwanted or disturbing energy from natural and
sometimes man-made sources. Noise is, however, typically distinguished from interference,  for[a]

example in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and signal-to-noise plus

interference ratio (SNIR) measures. Noise is also typically distinguished from distortion, which is an
unwanted systematic alteration of the signal waveform by the communication equipment, for
example in signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SINAD) and total harmonic distortion plus
noise (THD+N) measures.
While noise is generally unwanted, it can serve a useful purpose in some applications, such
as random number generation or dither.

Contents

 1Noise types
o 1.1Thermal noise
o 1.2Shot noise
o 1.3Flicker noise
o 1.4Burst noise
o 1.5Transit-time noise
 2Coupled noise
o 2.1Sources
o 2.2Mitigation
 3Quantification
 4Dither
 5See also
 6Notes
 7References
 8Further reading
 9External links

Noise types[edit]
Different types of noise are generated by different devices and different processes. Thermal noise is
unavoidable at non-zero temperature (see fluctuation-dissipation theorem), while other types depend
mostly on device type (such as shot noise,  which needs a steep potential barrier) or manufacturing
[1][2]

quality and semiconductor defects, such as conductance fluctuations, including 1/f noise.

Thermal noise[edit]
Main article: Johnson–Nyquist noise
Johnson–Nyquist noise  (more often thermal noise) is unavoidable, and generated by the random
[1]

thermal motion of charge carriers (usually electrons), inside an electrical conductor, which happens
regardless of any applied voltage.
Thermal noise is approximately white, meaning that its power spectral density is nearly equal
throughout the frequency spectrum. The amplitude of the signal has very nearly a Gaussian
probability density function. A communication system affected by thermal noise is often modelled as
an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel.
Shot noise[edit]
Main article: Shot noise
Shot noise in electronic devices results from unavoidable random statistical fluctuations of
the electric current when the charge carriers (such as electrons) traverse a gap. If electrons flow
across a barrier, then they have discrete arrival times. Those discrete arrivals exhibit shot noise.
Typically, the barrier in a diode is used.  Shot noise is similar to the noise created by rain falling on a
[3]

tin roof. The flow of rain may be relatively constant, but the individual raindrops arrive discretely.
The root-mean-square value of the shot noise current i  is given by the Schottky formula.
n

where I is the DC current, q is the charge of an electron, and ΔB is the bandwidth in hertz. The
Schottky formula assumes independent arrivals.
Vacuum tubes exhibit shot noise because the electrons randomly leave the cathode and arrive
at the anode (plate). A tube may not exhibit the full shot noise effect: the presence of a space
charge tends to smooth out the arrival times (and thus reduce the randomness of the current).
Conductors and resistors typically do not exhibit shot noise because the
electrons thermalize and move diffusively within the material; the electrons do not have discrete
arrival times. Shot noise has been demonstrated in mesoscopic resistors when the size of the
resistive element becomes shorter than the electron–phonon scattering length. [4]

Flicker noise[edit]
Main articles: Flicker noise and 1/f noise
Flicker noise, also known as 1/f noise, is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum that falls
off steadily into the higher frequencies, with a pink spectrum. It occurs in almost all electronic
devices and results from a variety of effects.
Burst noise[edit]
Main article: Burst noise
Burst noise consists of sudden step-like transitions between two or more discrete voltage or
current levels, as high as several hundred microvolts, at random and unpredictable times. Each
shift in offset voltage or current lasts for several milliseconds to seconds. It is also known
a popcorn noise for the popping or crackling sounds it produces in audio circuits.
Transit-time noise[edit]
If the time taken by the electrons to travel from emitter to collector in a transistor becomes
comparable to the period of the signal being amplified, that is, at frequencies above VHF and
beyond, the transit-time effect takes place and noise input impedance of the transistor
decreases. From the frequency at which this effect becomes significant, it increases with
frequency and quickly dominates other sources of noise. [5]

Coupled noise[edit]
See also: Electromagnetic compatibility
While noise may be generated in the electronic circuit itself, additional noise energy can be
coupled into a circuit from the external environment, by inductive coupling or capacitive coupling,
or through the antenna of a radio receiver.
Sources[edit]
Intermodulation noise
Caused when signals of different frequencies share the same non-linear medium.
Crosstalk
Phenomenon in which a signal transmitted in one circuit or channel of a transmission
systems creates undesired interference onto a signal in another channel.
Interference
Modification or disruption of a signal travelling along a medium
Atmospheric noise
This noise is also called static noise and it is the natural source of disturbance caused
by lightning discharge in thunderstorm and the natural (electrical) disturbances occurring in
nature.
Industrial noise
Sources such as automobiles, aircraft, ignition electric motors and switching gear,
High voltage wires and fluorescent lamps cause industrial noise. These noises are produced
by the discharge present in all these operations.
Solar noise
Noise that originates from the Sun is called solar noise. Under normal conditions there is
constant radiation from the Sun due to its high temperature. Electrical disturbances such
as corona discharges, as well as sunspots can produce additional noise. The intensity of
solar noise varies over time in a solar cycle.
Cosmic noise
Distant stars generate noise called cosmic noise. While these stars are too far away to
individually affect terrestrial communications systems, their large number leads to
appreciable collective effects. Cosmic noise has been observed in a range from 8 MHz to
1.43 GHz, the latter frequency corresponding to the 21-cm hydrogen line. Apart from man-
made noise, it is the strongest component over the range of about 20 to 120 MHz. Little
cosmic noise below 20MHz penetrates the ionosphere, while its eventual disappearance at
frequencies in excess of 1.5 GHz is probably governed by the mechanisms generating it and
its absorption by hydrogen in interstellar space.
[citation needed]

Mitigation[edit]
In many cases noise found on a signal in a circuit is unwanted.
There are many different noise reduction techniques that can
reduce the noise picked up by a circuit.

1. Faraday cage – A Faraday cage enclosing a circuit can be

used to isolate the circuit from external noise sources. A
faraday cage cannot address noise sources that originate
 in the circuit itself or those carried in on its inputs, including
the power supply.
2. Capacitive coupling – Capacitive coupling allows an AC
signal from one part of the circuit to be picked up in
another part through interaction of electric fields. Where
coupling is unintended, the effects can be addressed
through improved circuit layout and grounding.
3. Ground loops – When grounding a circuit, it is important to
avoid ground loops. Ground loops occur when there is a
voltage difference between two ground connections. A
good way to fix this is to bring all the ground wires to the
same potential in a ground bus.
4. Shielding cables – A shielded cable can be thought of as a
Faraday cage for wiring and can protect the wires from
unwanted noise in a sensitive circuit. The shield must be
grounded to be effective. Grounding the shield at only one
end can avoid a ground loop on the shield.
5. Twisted pair wiring – Twisting wires in a circuit will reduce
electromagnetic noise. Twisting the wires decreases the
loop size in which a magnetic field can run through to
produce a current between the wires. Small loops may
exist between wires twisted together, but the magnetic field
going through these loops induces a current flowing in
opposite directions in alternate loops on each wire and so
there is no net noise current.
6. Notch filters – Notch filters or band-rejection filters are
useful for eliminating a specific noise frequency. For
example, power lines within a building run at 50 or
60 Hz line frequency. A sensitive circuit will pick up this
frequency as noise. A notch filter tuned to the line
frequency can remove the noise.

Quantification[edit]
The noise level in an electronic system is typically measured as an
electrical power N in watts or dBm, a root mean square (RMS)
voltage (identical to the noise standard deviation) in volts, dBμV or
a mean squared error (MSE) in volts squared. Noise may also be
characterized by its probability distribution and noise spectral
density N (f) in watts per hertz.
0

A noise signal is typically considered as a linear addition to a useful

information signal. Typical signal quality measures involving noise
are signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N), signal-to-quantization noise
ratio (SQNR) in analog-to-digital conversion and
compression, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) in image and video
coding, E /N  in digital transmission, carrier to noise ratio (CNR)
b 0

before the detector in carrier-modulated systems, and noise

figure in cascaded amplifiers.
Noise is a random process, characterized by stochastic properties
such as its variance, distribution, and spectral density. The spectral
distribution of noise can vary with frequency, so its power density is
measured in watts per hertz (W/Hz). Since the power in
a resistive element is proportional to the square of the voltage
across it, noise voltage (density) can be described by taking the
square root of the noise power density, resulting in volts per root

hertz ( ). Integrated circuit devices, such as operational

amplifiers commonly quote equivalent input noise level in these
terms (at room temperature).
Noise power is measured in watts or decibels (dB) relative to a
standard power, usually indicated by adding a suffix after dB.
Examples of electrical noise-level measurement units
are dBu, dBm0, dBrn, dBrnC, and dBrn(f  − f ), dBrn(144-line).
1 2

Telecommunication systems strive to increase the ratio of signal

level to noise level in order to effectively transfer data. Noise in
telecommunication systems is a product of both internal and
external sources to the system.
In a carrier-modulated passband analog communication system, a
certain carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) at the radio receiver input would
result in a certain signal-to-noise ratio in the detected message
signal. In a digital communications system, a
certain E /N  (normalized signal-to-noise ratio) would result in a
b 0

certain bit error rate.

Dither[edit]
If the noise source is correlated with the signal, such as in the case
of quantisation error, the intentional introduction of additional noise,
called dither, can reduce overall noise in the bandwidth of interest.
This technique allows retrieval of signals below the nominal
detection threshold of an instrument. This is an example
of stochastic resonance.