EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL NOISE

 Noise is an electronic signal that is a mixture of many random frequencies at many amplitudes
that gets added to a radio or information signal as it is transmitted from one place to another or
as it is processed. Noise is not the same as interference from other information signals.

 When you turn on any AM, FM, or shortwave receiver and tune it to some position between
stations, the hiss or static that you hear in the speaker is noise. Noise also shows up on a black-
and-white TV screen as snow or on a color screen as confetti. If the noise level is high enough
and/or the signal is weak enough, the noise can completely obliterate the original signal. Noise
that occurs in transmitting digital data causes bit errors and can result in information being
garbled or lost

 The noise level in a system is proportional to temperature and bandwidth,

and to the amount of current flowing in a component, the gain of the circuit,
and the resistance of the circuit. Increasing any of these factors increases
noise.
 Therefore, low noise is best obtained by using low-gain circuits, low direct
current, low resistance values, and narrow bandwidths. Keeping the
temperature low can also help.
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 External noise comes from sources over which we have little or no control—industrial,
atmospheric, or space. Regardless of its source, noise shows up as a random ac voltage and can
be seen on an oscilloscope. The amplitude varies over a wide range, as does the frequency. One
can say that noise in general contains all frequencies, varying randomly. This is generally known
as white noise.
 Atmospheric noise and space noise are a fact of life and simply cannot be eliminated. Some
industrial noise can be controlled at the source, but because there are so many sources of this
type of noise, there is no way to eliminate it. The key to reliable communication, then, is simply
to generate signals at a high enough power to overcome external noise. In some cases, shielding
sensitive circuits in metallic enclosures can aid in noise control.
 Industrial noise is produced by manufactured equipment, such as automotive ignition systems,
electric motors, and generators. Any electrical equipment that causes high voltages or currents
to be switched produces transients that create noise. Noise pulses of large amplitude occur
whenever a motor or other inductive device is turned on or off. The resulting transients are
extremely large in amplitude and rich in random harmonics. Fluorescent and other forms of gas-
filled lights are another common source of industrial noise.

ATMOSPHERIC NOISE

 The electrical disturbances that occur naturally in the earth’s atmosphere are another source of
noise. Atmospheric noise is often referred to as static. Static usually comes from lightning, the
electric discharges that occur between clouds or between the earth and clouds. Huge static
charges build up on the clouds, and when the potential difference is great enough, an arc is
created and electricity literally flows through the air. Lightning is very much like the static
charges that we experience during a dry spell in the winter. The voltages involved are, however,
enormous, and these transient electric signals of megawatt power generate harmonic energy
that can travel over extremely long distances.
 Like industrial noise, atmospheric noise shows up primarily as amplitude variations that add to a
signal and interfere with it. Atmospheric noise has its greatest impact on signals at frequencies
below 30 MHz.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL NOISE

 Extraterrestrial noise, solar and cosmic, comes from sources in space. One of the primary
sources of extraterrestrial noise is the sun, which radiates a wide range of signals in a broad
noise spectrum. The noise intensity produced by the sun varies with time. In fact, the sun has a
repeatable 11-year noise cycle. During the peak of the cycle, the sun produces an awesome
amount of noise that causes tremendous radio signal interference and makes many frequencies
unusable for communication. During other years, the noise is at a lower level.

 Noise generated by stars outside our solar system is generally known as cosmic noise. Although
its level is not as great as that of noise produced by the sun, because of the great distances
between those stars and earth, it is nevertheless an important source of noise that must be
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considered. It shows up primarily in the 10-MHz to 1.5-GHz range, but causes the greatest
disruptions in the 15- to 150-MHz range.

INTERNAL NOISE

 Electronic components in a receiver such as resistors, diodes, and transistors are major sources
of internal noise. Internal noise, although it is low level, is often great enough to interfere with
weak signals. The main sources of internal noise in a receiver are thermal noise, semiconductor
noise, and intermodulation distortion. Since the sources of internal noise are well known, there
is some design control over this type of noise.

THERMAL NOISE

 Most internal noise is caused by a phenomenon known as thermal agitation, the random motion
of free electrons in a conductor caused by heat. Increasing the temperature causes this atomic
motion to increase. Since the components are conductors, the movement of electrons
constitutes a current flow that causes a small voltage to be produced across that component.
Electrons traversing a conductor as current flows experience fleeting impediments in their path
as they encounter the thermally agitated atoms. The apparent resistance of the conductor thus
fluctuates, causing the thermally produced random voltage we call noise.

 Thermal agitation is often referred to as white noise or Johnson noise, after J. B. Johnson, who
discovered it in 1928. Just as white light contains all other light frequencies, white noise contains
all frequencies randomly occurring at random amplitudes. A white noise signal therefore
occupies, theoretically at least, infinite bandwidth. Filtered or band-limited noise is referred to as
pink noise.

SEMICONDUCTOR NOISE

 Electronic components such as diodes and transistors are major contributors of noise. In
addition to thermal noise, semiconductors produce shot noise, transit-time noise, and flicker
noise.

Shot noise

 The most common type of semiconductor noise is shot noise. Current flow in any device is not
direct and linear. The current carriers, electrons or holes, sometimes take random paths from
source to destination, whether the destination is an output element, tube plate, or collector or
drain in a transistor. It is this random movement that produces the shot effect. Shot noise is also
produced by the random movement of electrons or holes across a PN junction. Even though
current l ow is established by external bias voltages, some random movement of electrons or
holes will occur as a result of discontinuities in the device. For example, the interface between
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the copper lead and the semiconductor material forms a discontinuity that causes random
movement of the current carriers.

RANSIT-TIME NOISE

 Another kind of noise that occurs in transistors is called transit-time noise. The term transit time
refers to how long it takes for a current carrier such as a hole or electron to move from the input
to the output. The devices themselves are very tiny, so the distances involved are minimal, yet
the time it takes for the current carriers to move even a short distance is finite. At low
frequencies, this time is negligible; but when the frequency of operation is high and the period
of the signal being processed is the same order of magnitude as the transit time, problems can
occur. Transit-time noise shows up as a kind of random variation of current carriers within a
device, occurring near the upper cutoff frequency. Transit-time noise is directly proportional to
the frequency of operation. Since most circuits are designed to operate at a frequency much less
than the transistor’s upper limit, transit-time noise is rarely a problem.

 FLICKER NOISE

 A third type of semiconductor noise, flicker noise or excess noise, also occurs in resistors and
conductors. This disturbance is the result of minute random variations of resistance in the
semiconductor material. It is directly proportional to current and temperature. However, it is
inversely proportional to frequency, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as 1/f noise.
Flicker noise is highest at the lower frequencies and thus is not pure white noise. Because of the
dearth of high-frequency components, 1/f noise is also called pink noise.

 At some low frequency, flicker noise begins to exceed thermal and shot noise. In some
transistors, this transition frequency is as low as several hundred hertz; in others, the noise may
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begin to rise at a frequency as high as 100 kHz. This information is listed on the transistor data
sheet, the best source of noise data.

 The amount of flicker noise present in resistors depends on the type of resistor.

INTERMODULATION DISTORTION

 Intermodulation distortion results from the generation of new signals and harmonics caused by
circuit nonlinearities. As stated previously, circuits can never be perfectly linear, and if bias
voltages are incorrect in an amplifier or it is driven into clipping, it is likely to be more nonlinear
than intended.
 Nonlinearities produce modulation or heterodyne effects. Any frequencies in the circuit mix
together, forming sum and difference frequencies. When many frequencies are involved, or with
pulses or rectangular waves, the large number of harmonics produces an even larger number of
sum and difference frequencies.
 When two signals are near the same frequency, some new sum and difference frequencies are
generated by a nonlinearity, and they can appear inside the bandwidth of the amplifier. In most
cases, such signals cannot be filtered out. As a result they become interfering signals to the
primary signals to be amplified. They are a form of noise.
 The resulting IMD products are small in amplitude, but can be large enough to constitute a
disturbance that can be regarded as a type of noise. This noise, which is not white or pink, can
be predicted because the frequencies involved in generating the intermodulation products are
known. Because of the predictable correlation between the known frequencies and the noise,
intermodulation distortion is also called correlated noise. Correlated noise is produced only
when signals are present. The types of noise discussed earlier are sometimes referred to as
uncorrelated noise. Correlated noise is manifested as the low-level signals called birdies. It can
be minimized by good design.
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 Amplifiers and receivers always have more noise at the output than at the input because of the
internal noise, which is added to the signal. And even as the signal is being amplified along the
way, the noise generated in the process is amplified along with it. The S/N ratio at the output will
be less than the S/N ratio of the input, and so the noise figure will always be greater than 1. A
receiver that contributed no noise to the signal would have a noise figure of 1, or 0 dB, which is
not attainable in practice. A transistor amplifier in a communication receiver usually has a noise
figure of several decibels. The lower the noise ifigure, the better the amplifier or receiver. Noise
figures of less than about 2 dB are excellent.

NOISE TEMPERATURE
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 If the noise ratio is greater than 1, an equivalent noise temperature will be produced. The
equivalent noise temperature is the temperature to which a resistor equal in value to Zo of the
device would have to be raised to generate the same Vn as the device generates.

 Noise temperature is used only in circuits or equipment that operates at VHF, UHF, or microwave
frequencies. The noise factor or noise figure is used at lower frequencies. A good low-noise
transistor or amplifier stage typically has a noise temperature of less than 100 K. The lower the
noise temperature, the better the device. Often you will see the noise temperature of a
transistor given in the data sheet.

NOISE IN THE MICROWAVE REGION

 Noise is an important consideration at all communication frequencies, but it is particularly

critical in the microwave region because noise increases with bandwidth and affects high-
frequency signals more than low-frequency signals. The limiting factor in most microwave
communication systems, such as satellites, radar, and radio telescope astronomy, is internal
noise. In some special microwave receivers, the noise level is reduced by cooling the input stages
to the receiver, as mentioned earlier. This technique is called operating with cryogenic
conditions, the term cryogenic referring to very cold conditions approaching absolute zero.
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