CONTENTS

SYSTEM NOISE IN DIGITAL SYSTEMS..........................................................................................2

1.1: Introduction................................................................................................................................2

1.2: Types of Noise............................................................................................................................2

1.2.1: Thermal (White) Noise........................................................................................................2

1.2.2: Shot Noise...........................................................................................................................4

1.2.3: Flicker Noise.......................................................................................................................4

1.2.4: Burst Noise..........................................................................................................................5

1.2.5: Transit-Time Noise..............................................................................................................5

1.2.6: Coupled Noise.....................................................................................................................5

1.3: Sources of Noise.........................................................................................................................5

1.3.1: Intermodulation noise..........................................................................................................5

1.3.2: Crosstalk..............................................................................................................................5

1.3.3: Interference..........................................................................................................................5

1.3.4: Atmospheric Noise..............................................................................................................5

1.3.5: Industrial Noise....................................................................................................................5

1.3.6: Solar Noise..........................................................................................................................6

1.3.7: Cosmic Noise.......................................................................................................................6

1.4: Noise Reduction (Mitigation).....................................................................................................6

1.5: Quantification.............................................................................................................................7

1.6: Dither..........................................................................................................................................8

REFFERENCES....................................................................................................................................9

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 SYSTEM NOISE IN DIGITAL SYSTEMS
1.1: Introduction
In electronics, noise is an unwanted disturbance in an electrical signal. (Motchenbacher,1993)
Noise generated by electronic devices varies greatly as it is produced by several different
effects.
In communication systems, noise is an error or undesired random disturbance of a useful
information signal. The noise is a summation of unwanted or disturbing energy from natural
and sometimes manmade sources. Noise is, however, typically distinguished from
interference, for example in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference ratio (SIR)
and signal-to-noise plus interference ratio (SNIR) measures. Noise is also typically
distinguished from distortion, 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 or dither.

Figure 1. Analog display of random fluctuations in voltage in pink noise

1.2: Types of Noise
Different types of noise are generated by different devices and different processes. Thermal
noise is unavoidable at non-zero temperature while other types depend mostly on device type
(such as shot noise, (Granqvist, 2000) which needs a steep potential barrier) or manufacturing
quality and semiconductor defects, such as conductance fluctuations, including 1/f noise.
1.2.1: Thermal (White) Noise
Johnson–Nyquist noise (more often thermal noise) is unavoidable, and generated by the
random thermal motion of charge carriers (usually electrons), inside an electrical conductor,
which happens regardless of any applied voltage.
Thermal noise is approximately white, meaning that its power spectral density is nearly equal
throughout the frequency spectrum. 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.

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 a) Spectral Power Density of (white) Noise
Amount of thermal noise to be found in a bandwidth of 1Hz in any device or conductor is:
N0 ═ kT (W/Hz)
Whereas; N0 = noise power density (in watts) per 1 Hz of bandwidth
k = Boltzmann's constant = 1.3803 × 10-23 J/K (or W/ (KHz))
T = temperature, in kelvin (absolute temperature)
Note Watt = J/sec = J. Hz
b) Thermal Noise Power
Noise is assumed to be independent of frequency. Thermal noise present in a bandwidth of B
Hertz (in watts):
N0 ═ kT (W/Hz)→ N ═ kTB
or, in decibel-watts
N ═ 10 log k + 10 logT +10 log B
Consider figure 2 below shows the plot of the spectral density of thermal noise over
frequency, can see that the noise is flat frequency spectrum till around 100GHz or so and
starts to fall off at around 1TeraHz.

Figure 2 Thermal or White Noise

The noise generated due to temperature T by a resistive component has normalized power
spectrum (also called mean-square voltage spectrum): 2RkT(V2/Hz)
Whereas; k = Boltzmann's constant = 1.3803 × 10-23 J/K
T = temperature, in kelvin (absolute temperature)
Therefore, the average power that a voltage or current source can deliver (available) is;
2RkT.2B = 4RkTB (V2)
The RMS voltage equivalent of the thermal noise will be;
Vrms = √ Average noise Power = √ 4 kTRB( V)

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 c) The Noise Power Delivered to the Load.

The voltage delivered to the load is maximum when Rs = RL= R

v L ( t )2 v ( t ) 2 v ( t )2
Thus; VL(t) = Vs(t)/2 → Pload ═ ═ ¿ ¿ ¿═ s ═ rms
2 4R 4R
Spectral Noise Density at the load will be:
kT/2 ═ N0/2 (W/Hz)
1.2.2: 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. (Ott, 1976) 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 in is given by the Schottky formula.
in = √ 2 Iq Δ B
where I is the DC current, q is the charge of an electron, and ΔB is the bandwidth in hertz.
The Schottky formula assumes independent arrivals.
Vacuum tubes 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 tends to smooth out the arrival times (and thus reduce the randomness of the current).
Pentodes and screen-grid tetrodes exhibit more noise than triodes 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
and move diffusively within the material; the electrons do not have discrete arrival times.
Shot noise has been demonstrated in mesoscopic resistors when the size of the resistive
element becomes shorter than the electron–phonon scattering length. (Steinbach, 1996).
1.2.3: 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 spectrum. It occurs in almost all
electronic devices and results from a variety of effects.

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1.2.4: Burst Noise
Burst noise 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 lasts for several milliseconds to seconds. It is also
known a popcorn noise for the popping or crackling sounds it produces in audio circuits.
1.2.5: 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 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. (Scherz, 2006).
1.2.6: 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 of a radio receiver.
1.3: Sources of Noise
1.3.1: Intermodulation noise
This source is caused when signals of different frequencies share the same non-linear
medium.

1.3.2: Crosstalk
This is the phenomenon in which a signal transmitted in one circuit or channel of a
transmission systems creates undesired interference onto a signal in another channel.
1.3.3: Interference
This source is caused by modification or disruption of a signal travelling along a medium.
1.3.4: Atmospheric Noise
This noise is also called static noise and it is the natural source of disturbance caused by
lightning discharge in thunderstorm and the natural (electrical) disturbances occurring in
nature.
1.3.5: Industrial Noise
Sources such as automobiles, aircraft, ignition electric motors and switching gear, High
voltage wires and fluorescent lamps cause industrial noise. These noises are produced by the
discharge present in all these operations.

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1.3.6: Solar Noise
Noise that originates from the Sun is called solar noise. Under normal conditions there is
constant radiation from the Sun due to its high temperature. Electrical disturbances such as
corona discharges, as well as sunspots can produce additional noise. The intensity of solar
noise varies over time in a solar cycle.
1.3.7: Cosmic Noise
Distant stars generate noise called cosmic noise. While these stars are too far away to
individually affect terrestrial communications systems, 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 21cm hydrogen line. Apart from
manmade 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.
1.4: Noise Reduction (Mitigation)
In many cases noise found on a signal in a circuit is unwanted. Noise reduction is the process
of removing noise from a signal. Noise reduction techniques exist for audio and images.
Noise reduction algorithms tend to alter signals to a greater or lesser degree.
All signal processing devices, both analog and digital, have traits that make them susceptible
to noise. Noise can be random or white noise with an even frequency distribution, or
frequency dependent noise introduced by a device's mechanism or signal processing
algorithms.
In electronic recording devices, a major type of noise is hiss created by random electron
motion due to thermal agitation at all temperatures above absolute zero. These agitated
electrons rapidly add and subtract from the voltage of the output signal and thus create
detectable noise.
In the case of photographic film and magnetic tape, noise (both visible and audible) is
introduced due to the grain structure of the medium. In photographic film, the size of the
grains in the film determines the film's sensitivity, more sensitive film having larger sized
grains. In magnetic tape, the larger the grains of the magnetic particles (usually ferric oxide
or magnetite), the more prone the medium is to noise. To compensate for this, larger areas of
film or magnetic tape may be used to lower the noise to an acceptable level.
There are many different noise reduction techniques that can reduce the noise picked up by a
circuit.

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 i. 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.

ii. Capacitive coupling – Capacitive coupling allows an AC signal from one part of the
circuit to be picked up in another part through interaction of electric fields. Where
coupling is unintended, the effects can be addressed through improved circuit layout
and grounding.
iii. 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.
iv. Shielding cables – A shielded cable 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.
v. 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.
vi. 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. A sensitive circuit will pick up this frequency as noise. A notch
filter tuned to the line frequency can remove the noise.
1.5: Quantification
The noise level in an electronic system is typically measured as an electrical power N in watts
or dBm, a root mean square (RMS) voltage (identical to the noise standard deviation) in
volts, dBμV or a mean squared error (MSE) in volts squared. Noise may also be characterized
by its probability distribution and noise spectral density N0(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 (SQNR) in analog-to-digital conversion and compression,
peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) in image and video coding, E b/N0 in digital transmission,

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carrier to noise ratio (CNR) before the detector in carrier modulated systems, and noise figure
in cascaded amplifiers.
Noise is a random process, characterized by stochastic properties such as its variance,
distribution, and spectral density. The spectral distribution of noise can vary with frequency,
so its power density is measured in watts per hertz (W/Hz). Since the power in a resistive
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 (V∕√ Hz ). Integrated circuit devices, such as operational amplifiers commonly quote
equivalent input noise level in these terms (at room temperature).
Noise power is measured in watts or decibels (dB) relative to a standard power, usually
indicated by adding a suffix after dB. Examples of electrical noise-level measurement units
are dBu, dBm0, dBrn, dBrnC, and dBrn (f1 − f2), dBrn(144-line).
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.
In a carrier-modulated passband analog 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/N0 (normalized
signal-to-noise ratio) would result in a certain bit error rate.
1.6: Dither
If the noise source is correlated with the signal, such as in the case of quantization error, the
intentional introduction of additional noise, called dither, 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.
Stochastic resonance (SR) is a phenomenon where a signal that is normally too weak to be
detected by a sensor, can be boosted by adding white noise to the signal, which contains a
wide spectrum of frequencies. The frequencies in the white noise corresponding to the
original signal's frequencies will resonate with each other, amplifying the original signal
while not amplifying the rest of the white noise (thereby increasing the signal-to-noise ratio
which makes the original signal more prominent). Further, the added white noise can be
enough to be detectable by the sensor, which can then filter it out to effectively detect the
original, previously undetectable signal.

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 REFFERENCES
[1] Motchenbacher, C. D.; Connelly, J. A. (1993). Low-noise electronic system design.
Wiley Interscience. ISBN 0-471-57742-1.
[2] Kish, L. B.; Granqvist, C. G. (November 2000). "Noise in nanotechnology".
Microelectronics Reliability. Elsevier.
[3] Ott, Henry W. (1976), Noise Reduction Techniques in Electronic Systems, John
Wiley, pp. 208, 218, ISBN 0-471-65726-3.
[4] Steinbach, Andrew; Martinis, John; Devoret, Michel (1996-05-13). "Observation of
Hot Electron Shot Noise in a Metallic Resistor".
[5] Scherz, Paul. (2006, Nov 14) Practical Electronics for Inventors. ed. McGraw-Hill.