Noise in measurement systems

Signals
• Step, sine & square wave signals are
deterministic in nature
• Deterministic signal is one whose value at any
future time can be exactly predicted
• The future behaviour of real processes cannot
be exactly predicted
• In real measurement applications the input
signal to the measurement system is not
deterministic but random
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 How to estimate random signal?
• Using five statistical quantities
– mean
– standard deviation
– probability density function
– power spectral density
– autocorrelation function
• Unwanted random signals are usually referred
to as noise signals and unwanted
deterministic signals as interference signals

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 Review these topics
• Mean
• Standard deviation
• Probability density function
• Power spectral density
• Autocorrelation function

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 Random signal
• In order to specify a random signal we need to
know:

and

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 Signal to Noise ratio: SNR
• signal-to-noise or signal to interference ratio
S/N in decibels is given by

S E  Ws 
 20 log10    10 log10  
N  
V  N
W
• Where E,V are voltages and and WS and WN
are the corresponding total signal and noise
powers.

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 Noise Sources: Internal source
• Temp. induced noise: random, temperature
induced motion of electrons and other charge
carriers in resistors and semiconductors gives
rise to a corresponding random voltage which
is called thermal or Johnson noise
• shot noise: this occurs in transistors and is due
to random fluctuations in the rate at which
carriers diffuse across a junction.

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 External noise and interference
sources
• Nearby a.c. power circuits; produce sinusoidal
signals known as mains pick-up or hum.
• Power distribution lines and heavy rotating
machines can cause serious interference.
• D.C. power circuits are less likely to cause
interference.
• Corona discharge from d.c. circuits can result in
random noise in the measurement circuit and
that from a.c. circuits results in sinusoidal
interference at the power frequency or its second
harmonic.
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Reducing effects of noise and interference
• Physical separation: mutual inductances and coupling
capacitances between measurement and power
circuits are inversely proportional to the distance
between them, this distance should be as large as
possible
• Electromagnetic shielding: The simplest way of
reducing the effects of inductive coupling to an
external interference source is using twisted pairs,
where the magnitude of the interference voltage
induced in a given loop is cancelled by the voltage
induced in the next loop due to their opposite sign,
provided their loop areas are same.

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 Noise reduction
• Filtering: A filter is an element which transmits
a certain range (or ranges) of frequencies and
rejects all other frequencies.
• Averaging: Signal averaging can be used to
recover a repetitive measurement signal
affected by random noise, even if the signal
r.m.s. value is much less than that of the noise

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