Burst noise is a type of
electronic noise that occurs in semiconductors and ultra-thin gate oxide films. It is also called random telegraph noise (RTN), popcorn noise, impulse noise, bi-stable noise, or random telegraph signal (RTS) noise.
It 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 often lasts from several milliseconds to seconds, and sounds like
popcorn popping if hooked up to an audio speaker.
Popcorn noise was first observed in early
point contact diode
A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other.
A diode ...
s, then re-discovered during the commercialization of one of the first
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
op-amps; the 709.
No single source of popcorn noise is theorized to explain all occurrences, however the most commonly invoked cause is the random trapping and release of
charge carrier
In physics, a charge carrier is a particle or quasiparticle that is free to move, carrying an electric charge, especially the particles that carry electric charges in electrical conductors. Examples are electrons, ions and holes. The term i ...
s at thin film interfaces or at defect sites in bulk
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...
crystal. In cases where these charges have a significant impact on transistor performance (such as under an MOS gate or in a bipolar base region), the output signal can be substantial. These defects can be caused by manufacturing processes, such as heavy
ion implantation, or by unintentional side-effects such as surface contamination.
Individual op-amps can be screened for popcorn noise with peak detector circuits, to minimize the amount of noise in a specific application.
Burst noise is modeled mathematically by means of the
telegraph process, a Markovian continuous-time
stochastic process
In probability theory and related fields, a stochastic () or random process is a mathematical object usually defined as a family of random variables. Stochastic processes are widely used as mathematical models of systems and phenomena that ap ...
that jumps discontinuously between two distinct values.
See also
*
Atomic electron transition
Atomic electron transition is a change (or jump) of an electron from one energy level to another within an atom or artificial atom. It appears discontinuous as the electron "jumps" from one quantized energy level to another, typically in a fe ...
*
Telegraph process
References
External links
A review of popcorn noise and smart filtering www.advsolned.com
{{Noise
Noise (electronics)