ICA REPORT

Coaxial cable noise removal using instrumentation amplifier

RISHIKA JAIN(17) SHUBHANGI JOSHI(19) VEDANTI KESARKAR(21)

Introduction

Noise is defined as any undesired electrical signal that is present in addition to the voltage or current
being measured or processes. The medium usually being used in transmitting data especially for
televisions is coaxial cable and it is susceptible to electromagnetic interference (noise). Coaxial cable is a
cable usually divided in four layers outermost plastic sheath, copper shield, dielectric insulator and the
innermost conductor. The arrangement is done to make the cable shielded from any type of noise but due
to quality and limits of the materials being used the signal through them get affected by noise. Many
methods have been introduced to reduce the noise such as, using differential amplifier but they are not so
fruitful due to its low-input-resistance problem instrumentation amplifier to remove noise from the signal
from coaxial cable and makes calculations for SNR at input and output using Arduino microcontroller.
In the types of noise, structure and behavior of coaxial
cable is discussed as shown This shows that noise is
always an unwanted signal added with original signal and
contaminates the original signal. It is described in that
noise added in a signal equally added in ground path. It
also emphasizes on different types on noise that can be
added to coaxial cable and improvements that can be made to reduce them to a great extent. It is
explained that noise can be removed through the signal completely by using most frequently used
Instrumentation Amplifier (IA). Middle conductor passes signal that is the addition of noise and original
signal while the metallic sheet only passes the noise. IA is used as a differential amplifier to reject the
common signal to inverting and non-inverting inputs.

SNR improvement using Instrumentation Amplifier

The method used in this paper is the removal of noise from coaxial cable as well as measurement of SNR at
input and output very accurately using Arduino. Op-amp has been used to simply add a low mV signal (noise)
and a signal of few volts to model noise source interfering with the message signal. The added signal is
then fed to coaxial cable and fed to self-designed IA (Instrumentation Amplifier). Self-designed IA consists
of three op-amps, two for increasing input impedance usually connected in non-inverting configuration. The
two wires of coaxial cables are connected to each of the amplifier input. The two amplifier outputs are then
fed to third amplifier in differential mode where feed-back, compensating resistor is connected at inverting
and non-inverting terminals of third op-
amp respectively. In differential mode, op-
amp subtracts the inverting input from the
non-inverting and then multiplies it with
gain. In our case, original signal with some
noise is being applied on non-inverting
input and noise is added through inverting
input. So noise is common signal and
eliminated at the output due to differential
configuration of op-Amp. As, the Signal to
Noise Ratio (SNR) is the ratio of Signal to
Noise (S/N) and noise has been reduces to
its minimum value so the value of SNR
increases at the output. Equation shows
that the gain can be adjusted using variable
resistor connected between the two
feedback resistors of input op-amps.
and improvements that can be made to reduce them to a great extent. It is explained that noise can be
removed through the signal completely by using most frequently used Instrumentation Amplifier (IA).
Middle conductor passes signal that is the addition of noise and original signal while the metallic sheet
only passes the noise. IA is used as a differential amplifier to reject the common signal to inverting and
non-inverting inputs.

CMRR Calculation
The CMRR (Common Mode Rejection Ratio) is an important parameter for IA to know its capability to reject the
noise efficiently and accurately. Its formula can be written as follows:

CMMR= or (1)
(CMMR) dB = 20 log (2)

The differential gain (Ad) is set by the circuit resistance 'R' and 'RA' according to the desired application
gain.

Ad = 1+ (3)

Where,
R= R1 = R2 = R3 = R4 = R5 = R6 (4)

The common mode gain (ACM) is calculated by applying a common mode signal to the IA as the
output obtained is product of ACM and the common mode input voltage value and given by equation
(5).

V out = ACM*VCM (5)

SNR Calculation Method

SNR calculation is one of the major issue relating the applications to show the improvement of signal
quality and there were no practical hardware available for the purpose, so it has been tried to measure the
SNR practically using Auduino. In Arduino analog signal has been fed of known value to read by it and
convert it to digital values. As the controller will read each value of voltage of AC signal at every instance
so we get random values increasing and decreasing to maximum values.The maximum value range is noted
and one value of that range is stored in a variable

SNR input = (6)

SNR output = CMRR*SNR input (7)

SNR output (dB) = SNR input (dB) +

CMRR (dB) (8)

Results

Output waveform of IA for sinusoidal Noise

This describes the output waveforms when input noise is sinusoidal. The
first waveform in this output of IA for noise lying in range of 1MHz to 10MHz which shows high distortion in
shape but waveform pattern remains sinusoidal. The upper right waveform shows the output of IA for noise lying in
range of 100 kHz to 999 kHz which shows relatively low distortion in shape. The bottom left waveform shows
output waveform for range of noise lying from 1 kHz to 99 kHz which show negligible distortion in output shape.
The bottom right waveform shows output of IA for range of noise lying from 0Hz to 999Hz which shows no
distortion.

Output waveform of IA for square wave

The output waveforms for Square waveform noise. The first waveform is
for noise range 500 kHz to 10MHz which shows no distortion at output.
The upper right waveform is of noise ranging 1 kHz to 400 kHz which
shows high distortion in shape but pattern is same. The bottom left
waveform is at 1 kHz frequency which shows very little discontinuity in
shape near peak of output waveform so the waveform is nearly
sinusoidal. The bottom right waveform is of output waveform where
noise lies in range of 0 Hz to 999 Hz which shows discontinuity near
zero-crossings but waveform is nearly sinusoidal.

Output waveform of IA for triangular wave

This shows output waveform when the noise is triangular shape. The
first waveform is of noise that lies in range 1MHz to 10MHz which
shows distortion in shape which is high at peak values but pattern is
sinusoidal. The upper right waveform is of noise that lies in range of 2
kHz to 100 kHz which shows high distortion in shape and waveform is
not sinusoidal. The bottom left waveform is of noise at 1 kHz which
show no distortion in output waveform. The bottom right waveform is of
noise that lies in range of 0 Hz to 1 kHz which shows no distortion but
amplitude variation is present.

CONCLUSION
This shows the output for Auduino serial monitor which shows the
SNR at input and SNR at output of IA , verifies the purpose for
usage of IA i.e to increase SNR of signal considerably. In his paper
instrumentation amplifier has been designed for removal of noise to
great extent and method for calculating SNR practically. The noise
removal through coaxial cable depends upon the shape of noise and
frequency of noise so instrumentation amplifier should be designed
according to environment in which it is to be used to remove the
noise. Instrumentation amplifier considerably reduces noise which is
being showed in results above and in serial monitor output of
Auduino. Further it can be concluded that many precautionary steps
like proper grounding, shielding etc. will reduce the intensity of
noise that get added to message signal to corrupt it.

Output Serial Monitor Arduino UNO