ECE 113 Lecture 02:

Noise in Electronic
Systems
MODELLING THE EFFECT OF NOISE IN A SYSTEM

ECE 113: COMMUNICATION ELECTRONICS 1

Sources of Noise
• The driving force of electronic circuits is the electron
flow.
• As electrons are negatively charged, they tend to repel
each other. As such, electrons randomly move around
even if there is no voltage. The average current is zero.
• Electronic noise:
◦ Thermal noise – nonzero temperature causes vibration of
charges.
◦ Shot noise – found in solid-state and vacuum tube devices.
1
◦ Flicker noise - noise that occurs in most electronic devices.
𝑓
◦ Others (Quantum noise, Cosmological noise, Plasma noise, etc.)

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Thermal Noise

• Caused by thermal vibration. It is a WSS random process.

• Recall that WSS process has a constant mean and its autocorrelation with
itself is not dependent with time.
• The noise power can then be calculated using the variance of the noise:
𝑇
2 1 2 𝑑𝑡
4ℎ𝑓𝐵𝑅
𝑉𝑁 = lim න 𝑣𝑁 𝑡 = ℎ𝑓/𝑘𝑇
𝑇→∞ 𝑇 𝑒 −1
0
• The resulting variance is from Planck’s black body radiation law.

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Thermal Noise
4ℎ𝑓𝐵𝑅
𝑉𝑁 =
𝑒 ℎ𝑓/𝑘𝑇 − 1
𝑉𝑁 – rms noise voltage 𝐵 – bandwidth of system
ℎ – Planck’s constant 𝑅 – resistance of resistor
𝑘 – Boltzmann’s constant 𝑓 – frequency of operation

• ℎ = 6.626 × 10−34 m2 ∙ kg ∙ s −1
• 𝑘 = 1.381 × 10−23 m2 ∙ kg ∙ s −2 ∙ K −1

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Thermal Noise at RF
• Maximum frequency at RF is approximately 300 𝐺𝐻𝑧.
Consider the denominator of the expression for the
rms voltage:
𝑒 ℎ𝑓/𝑘𝑇 − 1
• Substitute the value at room temperature (~290 𝐾):
ℎ𝑓 = 1.9878 × 10−22 m2 ∙ kg ∙ s −2
𝑘𝑇 = 4.0049 × 10−21 m2 ∙ kg ∙ s −2
• As ℎ𝑓 is one decade below 𝑘𝑇, we can approximate
that ℎ𝑓ൗ𝑘𝑇 ≪ 1. Therefore:
ℎ𝑓/𝑘𝑇
ℎ𝑓
𝑒 −1=
𝑘𝑇

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Thermal Noise at RF
• Using the approximation,
4ℎ𝑓𝐵𝑅 4ℎ𝑓𝐵𝑅
𝑉𝑁 = = = 4𝑘𝑇𝐵𝑅
𝑒 ℎ𝑓/𝑘𝑇 −1 ℎ𝑓ൗ
𝑘𝑇
• Notes:
◦ At RF, the noise rms is independent of frequency.
◦ It follows that the noise power is also independent of
frequency. Therefore, thermal noise is approximately white
noise.
◦ This is the assumed noise in communications systems!
◦ Let 𝑇0 be the standard room temperature in kelvin.

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Equivalent Circuit

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Maximum Power Transfer
• In RF circuits, each system block must be matched
with each other. That is, maximum power transfer
occurs from one block to the next.
• If the circuit is matched, how much noise power
comes into the receiving resistor?
• Consider the circuit:

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Maximum Power Transfer
𝑅 1
𝑣 𝑡 = 𝑣𝑁 𝑡 = 𝑣𝑁 𝑡
𝑅+𝑅 2
• Let 𝑃 be the power across the receiving resistor and the
temperature is 𝑇0 = 290 𝐾.
2
𝑉2 1 1
𝑃= = 𝑉𝑁
𝑅 𝑅 2
1 1
𝑃= 4𝑘𝑇0 𝐵𝑅
𝑅 4
𝑃 = 𝑘𝑇0 𝐵 = 𝑁0
• 𝑁0 is the noise power received by the added (matched)
resistor.

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Equivalent Noise Temperature
• From the formula of noise power, 𝑁0 , the temperature
can be solved:
𝑁0
𝑇=
𝑘𝐵
• Other noise sources can be modelled as a resistor that
has a certain temperature. Consider the setup below.

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Equivalent Noise Temperature
• Since the resistor at the amplifier input is held at 0 𝐾,
then there is no noise that is amplified. Noise comes
out of the noisy amplifier.
• Now, assuming that the system is matched and that
the noise output is approximately white, we measure a
noise power at the output resistor:
𝑁𝑒
𝑁𝑒 = 𝐺𝑘𝑇𝑒 𝐵 → 𝑇𝑒 =
𝐺𝑘𝐵
• 𝑇𝑒 is the equivalent noise temperature of the system.
• Amplifier adds noise into the system further
corrupting the signal.

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Equivalent Circuit

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Noise Figure
• The noise figure is the ratio of the SNR at the input to
the SNR at the output.
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑖𝑛
𝐹= 𝑁𝐹 𝑑𝐵 = 10 log 𝐹
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑡
• This is a metric used to characterize the noise added
into the system by a system block.
• Notes:
◦ Mixers use active devices and are prone to having a large noise
figure.
◦ Low-noise amplifiers are designed to have a high gain and low
noise figure.

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Amplifier Noise Figure
• Let 𝑠𝑖 𝑡 and 𝑛𝑖 𝑡 be the input signal and input noise
respectively, and 𝑠𝑜 𝑡 and 𝑛𝑜 𝑡 be the output signal
and output noise respectively. From the diagram
below,
𝑣𝑖 𝑡 = 𝑠𝑖 𝑡 + 𝑛𝑖 𝑡
𝑣𝑜 𝑡 = 𝑠𝑜 𝑡 + 𝑛𝑜 (𝑡)

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Amplifier Noise Figure
• Now let:
◦ 𝑆𝑖 - input signal power
◦ 𝑁𝑖 - input noise power
◦ 𝑆𝑜 - output signal power
◦ 𝑁𝑜 - output noise power
• Since the resistor at the input side has a temperature equal
to 𝑇0 , then 𝑁0 = 𝑘𝑇0 𝐵. Therefore:
𝑆𝑖
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑖𝑛 =
𝑘𝑇0 𝐵
• The amplifier has a gain 𝐺 and equivalent noise
temperature 𝑇𝑒 . The noise contributed by the amplifier is
𝑁𝑒 = 𝐺𝑘𝑇𝑒 𝐵

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Amplifier Noise Figure
• The amplifier adds noise to the signal. The resulting
output noise is:
𝑁𝑜 = 𝐺𝑁𝑖 + 𝐺𝑘𝑇𝑒 𝐵 = 𝐺𝑘𝐵 𝑇0 + 𝑇𝑒
• The output SNR can be calculated as such:
𝑆𝑜 𝐺𝑆𝑖
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑡 = =
𝑁𝑜 𝐺𝑘𝐵 𝑇0 + 𝑇𝑒
• Solving for the noise figure of the system:
𝑆𝑖
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑖𝑛 ൗ𝑘𝐵𝑇 𝑇0 + 𝑇𝑒 𝑇𝑒
0
𝐹= = = = 1+
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐺𝑆𝑖൘ 𝑇0 𝑇0
𝐺𝑘𝐵 𝑇 + 𝑇 0 𝑒

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Amplifier Noise Figure
𝑇𝑒
𝐹 =1+ → 𝑇𝑒 = 𝐹 − 1 𝑇0
𝑇0
• Notes:
◦ The system is matched with the resistance 𝑅.
◦ Noise figure is only dependent on equivalent temperature and
ambient temperature.
◦ This provides a method of measuring or characterizing the
equivalent noise temperature of a device.
◦ Also applies to passive networks.

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Example: Low Noise Amplifier
• An amplifier with an operational bandwidth of 20 MHz has
an equivalent noise temperature of 75 K. If the input to the
amplifier is kept at 290 K, what is the noise figure of the
amplifier? Assuming that the input power is 10 nW, what is
the SNR at the output?
𝑇𝑒 75
𝐹 =1+ =1+ = 1.2586 → 𝐹 = 1.00 𝑑𝐵
𝑇0 290
𝑆𝑖
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑖𝑛 = = 124,878.68 → 𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑖𝑛 = 50.96 𝑑𝐵
𝑘𝑇0 𝐵
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑖𝑛
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑡 = = 99220.30 → 𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 49.96 𝑑𝐵
𝐹

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Example: Cascaded System
• Consider the cascaded system below. What is the total
noise figure of the system in terms of 𝐹1 and 𝐹2 ?

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Example: Cascaded System
• Solve for the noise at the output:
𝑁0 = 𝑘𝑇0 𝐵 𝑁1 = 𝐺1 𝑁0 + 𝐺1 𝑘𝑇𝑒1 𝐵
𝑁2 = 𝐺2 𝑁1 + 𝐺2 𝑘𝑇𝑒2 𝐵
𝑁2 = 𝐺2 𝐺1 𝑘𝑇0 𝐵 + 𝐺2 𝐺1 𝑘𝑇𝑒1 𝐵 + 𝐺2 𝑘𝑇𝑒2 𝐵
𝑇𝑒2
𝑁2 = 𝐺1 𝐺2 𝑘𝐵 𝑇0 + 𝑇𝑒1 +
𝐺1
• The output signal power is 𝑆2 = 𝐺1 𝐺2 𝑆0 .
• The total noise figure is:
𝑆0
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑖𝑛 ൗ𝑘𝐵𝑇
0
𝐹= =
𝑆𝑁𝑅𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐺1 𝐺2 𝑆0
൙ 𝐺 𝐺 𝑘𝐵 𝑇 + 𝑇 + 𝑇𝑒2
1 2 0 𝑒1 𝐺1

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Example: Cascaded System
• Simplifying:
𝑇
𝑇0 + 𝑇𝑒1 + 𝐺𝑒2 𝑇𝑒1 1 𝑇𝑒2
1
𝐹= =1+ +
𝑇0 𝑇0 𝐺1 𝑇0
• Note that 𝐹1 = 1 + 𝑇𝑒1ൗ𝑇0 and 𝐹2 − 1 = 𝑇𝑒2ൗ𝑇0 , then
1
𝐹 = 𝐹1 + 𝐹2 − 1
𝐺1

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General Cascaded System

• Total noise figure of the system:

1 1
𝐹 = 𝐹1 + 𝐹2 − 1 + 𝐹3 − 1 + ⋯
𝐺1 𝐺1 𝐺2
• Note that 𝐹1 , 𝐹2 , 𝐹3 are all linear (not dB).

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Example: Generic Receiver
•Compute for the over-all NF of the system.

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Example: Generic Receiver
• Bandpass filter reduces signal power before mixer.
Modelling it as part of the amplifier will result into an
amplifier with a gain, 𝐺𝑎𝑓 = 9 𝑑𝐵.
1
𝐹 = 𝐹𝑎 + 𝐹𝑚 − 1
𝐺𝑎𝑓
1
𝐹 = 10 + 0.9 100.4 − 1
0.2
10

𝐹 = 1.775
𝐹 𝑑𝐵 = 2.493 𝑑𝐵

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Equivalent Noise Bandwidth
• Consider the case when noise with power spectral
density 𝑛0 is going in a noiseless baseband system
block with a transfer function 𝐻 𝑓 . The noise power at
the output assuming a WSS noise can be taken
through Parceval’s theorem.
+∞
2
𝑁0 = 𝑛0 න 𝐻 𝑓 𝑑𝑓
−∞
• Now, imagine an ideal low pass filter with a height of
𝐻 0 and has a bandwidth 𝐵𝑁 . It also has an input
noise with power 𝑛0 producing the same 𝑁0 at its
output.

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Equivalent Noise Bandwidth
𝐵𝑁

𝐻 𝑓

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Equivalent Noise Bandwidth
• Since both cases produce the same output noise
power from the same input noise, then
+∞

𝐻 0 2𝐵 = න 𝐻 𝑓 2 𝑑𝑓
𝑁
−∞
• 𝐵𝑁 is the equivalent noise bandwidth of the system.
This limits the noise power observed at the output
(recall: 𝑁0 = 𝑘𝑇𝐵).

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Example: RC Low-Pass Filter
• What is the equivalent noise bandwidth of a simple RC
circuit in a low-pass configuration?
1
𝐻 𝑓 = →𝐻 0 =1
1 + 𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑅𝐶
+∞
1
𝐵𝑁 = න 2
𝑑𝑓
1 + 2𝜋𝑓𝑅𝐶
−∞
• Hint: let tan 𝜃 = 2𝜋𝑓𝑅𝐶 → sec 2 𝜃 𝑑𝜃 = 2𝜋𝑅𝐶 × 𝑑𝑓.
1
𝐵𝑁 =
2𝑅𝐶

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References
• C. Bowick, RF Circuit Design, 2nd ed. Newnes, 2008.
• D. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, 4th ed. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 2012

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