Electronic Noise
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electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
, noise is an unwanted disturbance in an electrical signal. Noise generated by electronic devices varies greatly as it is produced by several different effects. In particular, noise is inherent in physics, and central to
thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of the ...
. Any conductor with
electrical resistance The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual paralle ...
will generate thermal noise inherently. The final elimination of thermal noise in electronics can only be achieved
cryogenically In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...
, and even then
quantum noise Quantum noise is noise arising from the indeterminate state of matter in accordance with fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, specifically the uncertainty principle and via zero-point energy fluctuations. Quantum noise is due to the appa ...
would remain inherent. Electronic noise is a common component of noise in signal processing. In
communication system A communications system or communication system is a collection of individual telecommunications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and terminal equipment usually capable of interconnection and interoperat ...
s, noise is an error or undesired random disturbance of a useful information
signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The '' IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing' ...
in a
communication channel A communication channel refers either to a physical transmission medium such as a wire, or to a logical connection over a multiplexed medium such as a radio channel in telecommunications and computer networking. A channel is used for informa ...
. The noise is a summation of unwanted or disturbing energy from natural and sometimes man-made sources. Noise is, however, typically distinguished from
interference Interference is the act of interfering, invading, or poaching. Interference may also refer to: Communications * Interference (communication), anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a message * Adjacent-channel interference, caused by extr ...
, for example in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR),
signal-to-interference ratio The signal-to-interference ratio (SIR or ''S/I''), also known as the carrier-to-interference ratio (CIR or ''C/I''), is the quotient between the average received modulated carrier power ''S'' or ''C'' and the average received co-channel interfere ...
(SIR) and signal-to-noise plus interference ratio (SNIR) measures. Noise is also typically distinguished from
distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signa ...
, 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 Random number generation is a process by which, often by means of a random number generator (RNG), a sequence of numbers or symbols that cannot be reasonably predicted better than by random chance is generated. This means that the particular out ...
or
dither Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used to randomize quantization error, preventing large-scale patterns such as color banding in images. Dither is routinely used in processing of both digital audio and video data, and is often ...
.


Noise types

Different types of noise are generated by different devices and different processes.
Thermal noise A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...
is unavoidable at non-zero temperature (see
fluctuation-dissipation theorem The fluctuation–dissipation theorem (FDT) or fluctuation–dissipation relation (FDR) is a powerful tool in statistical physics for predicting the behavior of systems that obey detailed balance. Given that a system obeys detailed balance, the th ...
), while other types depend mostly on device type (such as shot noise, which needs a steep potential barrier) or manufacturing quality and
semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
defects, such as conductance fluctuations, including 1/f noise.


Thermal noise

Johnson–Nyquist noise (more often thermal noise) is unavoidable, and generated by the random thermal motion of charge carriers (usually
electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no ...
s), inside an
electrical conductor In physics and electrical engineering, a conductor is an object or type of material that allows the flow of charge (electric current) in one or more directions. Materials made of metal are common electrical conductors. Electric current is gene ...
, which happens regardless of any applied
voltage Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to m ...
. Thermal noise is approximately
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
, meaning that its
power spectral density The power spectrum S_(f) of a time series x(t) describes the distribution of power into frequency components composing that signal. According to Fourier analysis, any physical signal can be decomposed into a number of discrete frequencies, ...
is nearly equal throughout the
frequency spectrum The power spectrum S_(f) of a time series x(t) describes the distribution of power into frequency components composing that signal. According to Fourier analysis, any physical signal can be decomposed into a number of discrete frequencies, ...
. 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

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 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''n is given by the Schottky formula. :i_n = \sqrt where ''I'' is the DC current, ''q'' is the charge of an electron, and Δ''B'' is the bandwidth in hertz. The Schottky formula assumes independent arrivals.
Vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...
s 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 Space charge is an interpretation of a collection of electric charges in which excess electric charge is treated as a continuum of charge distributed over a region of space (either a volume or an area) rather than distinct point-like charges. Thi ...
tends to smooth out the arrival times (and thus reduce the randomness of the current).
Pentode A pentode is an electronic device having five electrodes. The term most commonly applies to a three-grid amplifying vacuum tube or thermionic valve that was invented by Gilles Holst and Bernhard D.H. Tellegen in 1926. The pentode (called a ''tripl ...
s and screen-grid tetrodes exhibit more noise than
triodes A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube (or ''valve'' in British English) consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode). Developed from Lee De Forest's 190 ...
because the cathode current splits randomly between the screen grid and the anode. Conductors and resistors typically do not exhibit shot noise because the electrons
thermalize In physics, thermalisation is the process of physical bodies reaching thermal equilibrium through mutual interaction. In general the natural tendency of a system is towards a state of equipartition of energy and uniform temperature that maximizes ...
and move diffusively within the material; the electrons do not have discrete arrival times. Shot noise has been demonstrated in
mesoscopic Mesoscopic physics is a subdiscipline of condensed matter physics that deals with materials of an intermediate size. These materials range in size between the nanoscale for a quantity of atoms (such as a molecule) and of materials measuring micr ...
resistors when the size of the resistive element becomes shorter than the electron–phonon scattering length.


Partition noise

Where current divides between two (or more) paths, noise occurs as a result of random fluctuations that occur during this division. For this reason, a transistor will have more noise than the combined shot noise from its two PN junctions.


Flicker 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 Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
spectrum. It occurs in almost all electronic devices and results from a variety of effects.


Burst noise

Burst noise consists of sudden step-like transitions between two or more discrete voltage or current levels, as high as several hundred
microvolt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). Defi ...
s, at random and unpredictable times. Each shift in offset voltage or current lasts for several milliseconds to seconds. It is also known as ''popcorn noise'' for the popping or crackling sounds it produces in audio circuits.


Transit-time noise

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 the 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.


Coupled noise

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 Antenna ( antennas or antennae) may refer to: Science and engineering * Antenna (radio), also known as an aerial, a transducer designed to transmit or receive electromagnetic (e.g., TV or radio) waves * Antennae Galaxies, the name of two collid ...
of a radio receiver.


Sources

;
Intermodulation Intermodulation (IM) or intermodulation distortion (IMD) is the amplitude modulation of signals containing two or more different frequencies, caused by nonlinearities or time variance in a system. The intermodulation between frequency comp ...
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 system creates undesired interference onto a signal in another channel. ;
Interference Interference is the act of interfering, invading, or poaching. Interference may also refer to: Communications * Interference (communication), anything which alters, modifies, or disrupts a message * Adjacent-channel interference, caused by extr ...
:Modification or disruption of a signal travelling along a medium ;
Atmospheric noise Atmospheric noise is radio noise caused by natural atmospheric processes, primarily lightning discharges in thunderstorms. On a worldwide scale, there are about 40 lightning flashes per second – ≈3.5 million lightning discharges ...
:Also called static noise, it is caused by
lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...
discharges in thunderstorms and other electrical disturbances occurring in nature, such as
corona discharge A corona discharge is an electrical discharge caused by the ionization of a fluid such as air surrounding a conductor (material), conductor carrying a high voltage. It represents a local region where the air (or other fluid) has undergone e ...
. ;Industrial noise :Sources such as automobiles, aircraft, ignition electric motors and switching gear, High
voltage Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to m ...
wires and
fluorescent lamp A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet ligh ...
s cause industrial noise. These noises are produced by the discharge present in all these operations. ;Solar noise :Noise that originates from the
Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
is called ''solar noise''. Under normal conditions, there is approximately constant radiation from the Sun due to its high temperature, but
solar storm A solar storm is a disturbance on the Sun, which can emanate outward across the heliosphere, affecting the entire Solar System, including Earth and its magnetosphere, and is the cause of space weather in the short-term with long-term patterns comp ...
s can cause a variety of electrical disturbances. The intensity of solar noise varies over time in a
solar cycle The solar cycle, also known as the solar magnetic activity cycle, sunspot cycle, or Schwabe cycle, is a nearly periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity measured in terms of variations in the number of observed sunspots on the Sun's surfa ...
. ;
Cosmic noise Cosmic noise, also known as galactic radio noise, is not actually sound, but a physical phenomenon derived from outside of the Earth's atmosphere. It can be detected through a radio receiver, which is an electronic device that receives radio waves ...
:Distant stars generate noise called cosmic noise. While these stars are too far away to individually affect terrestrial
communications system A communications system or communication system is a collection of individual telecommunications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and terminal equipment usually capable of interconnection and interoperat ...
s, 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 The hydrogen line, 21 centimeter line, or H I line is the electromagnetic radiation spectral line that is created by a change in the energy state of neutral hydrogen atoms. This electromagnetic radiation has a precise frequency of , w ...
. 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.


Mitigation

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. # 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. # Capacitive coupling – Capacitive coupling allows an AC signal from one part of the circuit to be picked up in another part through the interaction of electric fields. Where coupling is unintended, the effects can be addressed through improved circuit layout and grounding. # 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. # Shielding cables – A
shielded cable A shielded cable or screened cable is an electrical cable that has a common conductive layer around its conductors for electromagnetic shielding. This shield is usually covered by an outermost layer of the cable. Common types of cable shieldi ...
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. # 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. # 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 The utility frequency, (power) line frequency (American English) or mains frequency (British English) is the nominal frequency of the oscillations of alternating current (AC) in a wide area synchronous grid transmitted from a power station to th ...
. A sensitive circuit will pick up this frequency as noise. A notch filter tuned to the line frequency can remove the noise. Thermal noise can be reduced by cooling of circuits - this is typically only employed in high accuracy high value applications such as radio telescopes.


Quantification

The noise level in an electronic system is typically measured as an electrical
power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...
''N'' in
watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s or
dBm DBM or dbm may refer to: Science and technology * dBm, a unit for power measurement * DBM (computing), family of key-value database engines including dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley DB * Database Manager (DBM), a component of 1987's ''Extended Edi ...
, a root mean square (RMS) voltage (identical to the noise standard deviation) in volts, dBμV or a
mean squared error In statistics, the mean squared error (MSE) or mean squared deviation (MSD) of an estimator (of a procedure for estimating an unobserved quantity) measures the average of the squares of the errors—that is, the average squared difference between ...
(MSE) in volts squared. Examples of electrical noise-level measurement units are
dBu The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose ...
, dBm0,
dBrn The symbol dBrn or dB(rn) is an abbreviation for decibels above reference noise. Weighted noise power in dB is referred to 1.0 picowatt. Thus, 0 dBrn = -90 dBm. Use of 144 line, 144-receiver, or C-message weighting, or flat weighting, can be ...
, dBrnC, and dBrn(''f''1 − ''f''2), dBrn(144- line). Noise may also be characterized by its probability distribution and
noise spectral density In communications, noise spectral density (NSD), noise power density, noise power spectral density, or simply noise density (''N''0) is the power spectral density of noise or the noise power per unit of bandwidth. It has dimension of power over ...
''N''0(''f'') in watts per hertz. 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 Signal-to-quantization-noise ratio (SQNR or SNqR) is widely used quality measure in analysing digitizing schemes such as pulse-code modulation (PCM). The SQNR reflects the relationship between the maximum nominal signal strength and the quantiza ...
(SQNR) in
analog-to-digital conversion In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D) is a system that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provi ...
and compression,
peak signal-to-noise ratio Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is an engineering term for the ratio between the maximum possible power of a signal and the power of corrupting noise that affects the fidelity of its representation. Because many signals have a very wide dynamic ...
(PSNR) in image and video coding and
noise figure Noise figure (NF) and noise factor (''F'') are figures of merit that indicate degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that is caused by components in a signal chain. These figures of merit are used to evaluate the performance of an amplifier ...
in cascaded amplifiers. In a carrier-modulated passband analogue 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''b/''N''0 (normalized signal-to-noise ratio) would result in a certain
bit error rate In digital transmission, the number of bit errors is the number of received bits of a data stream over a communication channel that have been altered due to noise, interference, distortion or bit synchronization errors. The bit error rate (BER) ...
. 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. Noise is a random process, characterized by stochastic properties such as its
variance In probability theory and statistics, variance is the expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its population mean or sample mean. Variance is a measure of dispersion, meaning it is a measure of how far a set of numbe ...
,
distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...
, and
spectral density The power spectrum S_(f) of a time series x(t) describes the distribution of power into frequency components composing that signal. According to Fourier analysis, any physical signal can be decomposed into a number of discrete frequencies, ...
. The spectral distribution of noise can vary with
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...
, so its power density is measured in watts per hertz (W/Hz). Since the power in a
resistive The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels ...
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 (\scriptstyle \mathrm/\sqrt). Integrated circuit devices, such as operational amplifiers commonly quote
equivalent input noise Equivalent input (also input-referred, referred-to-input (RTI), or input-related), is a method of referring to the signal or noise level at the output of a system as if it were due to an input to the same system. This input's value is called the ...
level in these terms (at room temperature).


Dither

If the noise source is correlated with the signal, such as in the case of
quantisation error Quantization, in mathematics and digital signal processing, is the process of mapping input values from a large set (often a continuous set) to output values in a (countable) smaller set, often with a finite number of elements. Rounding and ...
, the intentional introduction of additional noise, called
dither Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used to randomize quantization error, preventing large-scale patterns such as color banding in images. Dither is routinely used in processing of both digital audio and video data, and is often ...
, 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.


See also

*
Active noise control Active noise control (ANC), also known as noise cancellation (NC), or active noise reduction (ANR), is a method for reducing unwanted sound by the addition of a second sound specifically designed to cancel the first. The concept was first develop ...
for noise reduction through cancellation *
Colors of noise In audio engineering, electronics, physics, and many other fields, the color of noise or noise spectrum refers to the power spectrum of a noise signal (a signal produced by a stochastic process). Different colors of noise have significantly ...
*
Discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation constitutes a major development in modern physical cosmology. In 1964, US physicist Arno Allan Penzias and radio-astronomer Robert Woodrow Wilson discovered the CMB, estimating its temper ...
* Error detection and correction for digital signals subject to noise * Generation–recombination noise * Matched filter for noise reduction in modems * Noise (signal processing) * Noise reduction and for audio and images *
Phonon noise Phonon noise, also known as thermal fluctuation noise, arises from the random exchange of energy between a thermal mass and its surrounding environment. This energy is quantized in the form of phonons. Each phonon has an energy of order k_\textT, w ...


Notes


References

*


Further reading

* * Scherz, Paul. (2006, Nov 14) ''Practical Electronics for Inventors''. ed. McGraw-Hill.


External links


Active Filter (Sallen & Key) Noise Study


{{Analogue TV transmitter topics Electrical parameters