Converting between Voltage or Power and

dB
Mike Steinberger

1.0 Power or Voltage?

Voltage and power ratios are often expressed in decibels or dB’s. The conversion between
ratios and dB’s is simple enough, with the hardest part being to remember whether you’re
working with a voltage ratio or a power ratio. The neat thing about dB’s is that they’re
defined in such a way that regardless whether you’re working with voltage or power, the
number of dB’s is the same.
)The important point to remember is that power is assumed to be proportional to the
square of the voltage. So for power you multiply/divide by 10 and for voltage you multi-
ply/divide by 20.

2.0 Power
Suppose we have the ratio of two powers

P2
P ≡ ------ (EQ 1)
P1

Then the dB’s for this ratio is

dB ≡ 10 log ( P ) (EQ 2)

and the reverse conversion is

dB
-------
10
P = 10 (EQ 3)

3.0 Voltage
Suppose we have the ratio of two voltages

V2
V ≡ ------ (EQ 4)
V1

The associated power ratio is equal to the square of the voltage ratio.

Converting between Voltage or Power and dB Copyright Signal Integrity Software, Inc. 1
All rights reserved. July 17, 2009
 2
P = V (EQ 5)

Then the dB’s for this ratio is

2
dB = 10 log ( V ) = 10 ⋅ 2 log ( V ) = 20 log ( V ) (EQ 6)

and the reverse conversion is

dB
-------
20
V = 10 (EQ 7)

4.0 dB’s on the Back of an Envelope

Often, it’s useful to do an approximate conversion to or from dB’s in order to do a sanity
check on a calculation or data point. The following table contains some useful and easily
applied approximations for dB power. To get the voltage ratio, take the square root of the
power ratio.
TABLE 1. dB approximations

Approximate Approximate
dB Power Power Ratio Voltage Ratio Explanation
-10 1/10 1 - = 0.316 See 10dB below.
---------
10
-9 1/8 1 See 9dB below.
0.354 ≈ -------
8
-7 1/5 1 See 7dB below.
0.447 ≈ -------
5
-6 1/4 1 See 6dB below.
0.501 ≈ -------
4
-5 1/3 1 Pretty crude approximation. See 5dB below.
0.562 ≈ -------
3
-3 1/2 1 See 3dB below.
0.708 ≈ -------
2
-1 4/5 See 1dB below.
0.891 ≈ 4---
5
0 1 1 log ( 1 ) = 0
1 5/4 10
1.122 ≈ 5--- ⎛ 5---⎞ = 9765265
---------------------
5
∴log ⎛⎝ ---⎞⎠ ≈ 0.1
4 ⎝ 4⎠ 1048576 4

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 TABLE 1. dB approximations

Approximate Approximate
dB Power Power Ratio Voltage Ratio Explanation
3 2 10 3
1.412 ≈ 2 2 = 1024 ≈ 10 ∴log ( 2 ) ≈ 0.3
5 3 1/6 1.778 2
⎛ 19
------⎞ 361
= --------- ≈ 10
19
∴log ⎛ ------⎞ ≈ 0.5
⎝ 6⎠ 36 ⎝ 6⎠
6 4 2
1.995 ≈ 4 log ( 4 ) = log ( 2 ) ≈ 0.6
7 5
2.239 ≈ 5 10
log ( 5 ) = log ⎛ ------⎞ ≈ 1 – 0.3 = 0.7
⎝ 2⎠
9 8 3
2.818 ≈ 8 log ( 8 ) = log ( 2 ) = 3 log ( 2 ) ≈ 0.9
10 10 log ( 10 ) = 1
3.162 = 10

This should make fascinating conversation at your next cocktail party.

Converting between Voltage or Power and dB Copyright Signal Integrity Software, Inc. 3
All rights reserved. July 17, 2009