A noise generator is a circuit that produces electrical noise (i.e., a random signal). Noise generators are used to test signals for measuring noise figure, frequency response, and other parameters. Noise generators are also used for generating random numbers. [1]
There are several circuits used for noise generation. For example, temperature-controlled resistors, temperature-limited vacuum diodes, zener diodes, and gas discharge tubes. [2] A source that can be switched on and off ("gated") is beneficial for some test methods.
Noise generators usually rely on a fundamental noise process such as thermal noise or shot noise.
Thermal noise can be a fundamental standard. A resistor at a certain temperature has a thermal noise associated with it. A noise generator might have two resistors at different temperatures and switch between the two resistors. The resulting output power is low. (For a 1 kΩ resistor at room temperature and a 10 kHz bandwidth, the RMS noise voltage is 400 nV. [3] )
If electrons flow across a barrier, then they have discrete arrival times. Those discrete arrivals exhibit shot noise. The output noise level of a shot noise generator is easily set by the DC bias current. Typically, the barrier in a diode is used. [4]
Different noise generator circuits use different methods of setting the DC bias current.
One common noise source was a thermally-limited (saturated-emission) hot-cathode vacuum tube diode. These sources could serve as white noise generators from a few kilohertz through UHF and were available in normal radio tube glass envelopes. Flicker () noise limited application at lower frequencies; electron transit time limited application at higher frequencies. The basic design was a diode vacuum tube with a heated filament. The temperature of the cathode (filament) sets the anode (plate) current that determines the shot noise; see Richardson equation. The anode voltage is set large enough to collect all the electrons emitted by the filament. [5] [6] If the plate voltage were too low, then there would be space charge near the filament that would affect the noise output. For a calibrated generator, care must be taken so that the shot noise dominates the thermal noise of the tube's plate resistance and other circuit elements.
Long, thin, hot-cathode gas-discharge glass tubes fitted with a normal bayonet light bulb mount for the filament and an anode top cap, were used for SHF frequencies and diagonal insertion into a waveguide. [7] [8] They were filled with a pure inert gas such as neon because mixtures made the output temperature-dependent. Their burning voltage was under 200 V, but they needed optical priming (pre-ionizing) by a 2 Watt incandescent lamp prior to ignition by an anode voltage spike in the 5 kV range.
For lower frequency noise bands glow lamps filled with neon have been used. The circuit was similar to the one for spike / needle pulses.
One miniature thyratron found an additional use as a noise source, when operated as a diode (grid tied to cathode) in a transverse magnetic field. [9]
Another possibility is using the collector current in a transistor.[ clarification needed ]
Reverse-biased diodes in breakdown can also be used as shot noise sources. Voltage regulator diodes are common, but there are two different breakdown mechanisms, and they have different noise characteristics. The mechanisms are the Zener effect and avalanche breakdown. [10]
Primarily, it is reverse-biased diodes and bipolar transistor base-emitter junctions that breakdown below about 7 volts that exhibit the Zener effect. The breakdown is due to internal field emission, since the junctions are thin, and the electric field is high. Zener-type breakdown is shot noise. The flicker () noise corner can be below 10 Hz. [11]
The noise generated by Zener diodes is a simple shot noise.
For breakdown voltages greater than 7 volts, the semiconductor junction width is thicker and primary breakdown mechanism is an avalanche. The noise output is more complicated. [11] There is excess noise (i.e., noise over and above the simple shot noise) because there is avalanche multiplication.
For higher power output noise generators, amplification is needed. For broadband noise generators, that amplification can be difficult to achieve. One method uses avalanche multiplication within the same barrier that generates the noise. In an avalanche, one carrier collides with other atoms and knocks free new carriers. The result is that for each carrier that starts across a barrier, several carriers synchronously arrive. The result is a wide-bandwidth high-power source. Conventional diodes can be used in breakdown.
The avalanche breakdown also has multistate noise. The noise output power randomly switches among several output levels. Multistate noise looks somewhat like flicker () noise. The effect is process dependent, but it can be minimized. Diodes may also be selected for low multistate noise. [11]
A commercial example of an avalanche diode noise generator is the Agilent 346C that covers 10 MHz to 26.5 GHz. [12]
A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device. This definition can be recalled by using the mnemonic CCD for Cathode Current Departs. A conventional current describes the direction in which positive charges move. Electrons have a negative electrical charge, so the movement of electrons is opposite to that of the conventional current flow. Consequently, the mnemonic cathode current departs also means that electrons flow into the device's cathode from the external circuit. For example, the end of a household battery marked with a + (plus) is the cathode.
A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts current primarily in one direction. It has low resistance in one direction and high resistance in the other.
A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode). Developed from Lee De Forest's 1906 Audion, a partial vacuum tube that added a grid electrode to the thermionic diode, the triode was the first practical electronic amplifier and the ancestor of other types of vacuum tubes such as the tetrode and pentode. Its invention founded the electronics age, making possible amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony. Triodes were widely used in consumer electronics devices such as radios and televisions until the 1970s, when transistors replaced them. Today, their main remaining use is in high-power RF amplifiers in radio transmitters and industrial RF heating devices. In recent years there has been a resurgence in demand for low power triodes due to renewed interest in tube-type audio systems by audiophiles who prefer the sound of tube-based electronics.
A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve, or tube, is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied.
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation is performed by an inverter.
A Zener diode is a special type of diode designed to reliably allow current to flow "backwards" when a certain set reverse voltage, known as the Zener voltage, is reached.
A thyristor is a solid-state semiconductor device with four layers of alternating P- and N-type materials used for high-power applications. It acts as a bistable switch. There are two designs, differing in what triggers the conducting state. In a three-lead thyristor, a small current on its gate lead controls the larger current of the anode-to-cathode path. In a two-lead thyristor, conduction begins when the potential difference between the anode and cathode themselves is sufficiently large. The thyristor continues conducting until the voltage across the device is reverse-biased or the voltage is removed, or through the control gate signal on newer types.
In electronics, an avalanche diode is a diode that is designed to experience avalanche breakdown at a specified reverse bias voltage. The junction of an avalanche diode is designed to prevent current concentration and resulting hot spots, so that the diode is undamaged by the breakdown. The avalanche breakdown is due to minority carriers accelerated enough to create ionization in the crystal lattice, producing more carriers, which in turn create more ionization. Because the avalanche breakdown is uniform across the whole junction, the breakdown voltage is nearly constant with changing current when compared to a non-avalanche diode.
In electronics, a Schmitt trigger is a comparator circuit with hysteresis implemented by applying positive feedback to the noninverting input of a comparator or differential amplifier. It is an active circuit which converts an analog input signal to a digital output signal. The circuit is named a trigger because the output retains its value until the input changes sufficiently to trigger a change. In the non-inverting configuration, when the input is higher than a chosen threshold, the output is high. When the input is below a different (lower) chosen threshold the output is low, and when the input is between the two levels the output retains its value. This dual threshold action is called hysteresis and implies that the Schmitt trigger possesses memory and can act as a bistable multivibrator. There is a close relation between the two kinds of circuits: a Schmitt trigger can be converted into a latch and a latch can be converted into a Schmitt trigger.
The control grid is an electrode used in amplifying thermionic valves such as the triode, tetrode and pentode, used to control the flow of electrons from the cathode to the anode (plate) electrode. The control grid usually consists of a cylindrical screen or helix of fine wire surrounding the cathode, and is surrounded in turn by the anode. The control grid was invented by Lee De Forest, who in 1906 added a grid to the Fleming valve to create the first amplifying vacuum tube, the Audion (triode).
A gas-filled tube, also commonly known as a discharge tube or formerly as a Plücker tube, is an arrangement of electrodes in a gas within an insulating, temperature-resistant envelope. Gas-filled tubes exploit phenomena related to electric discharge in gases, and operate by ionizing the gas with an applied voltage sufficient to cause electrical conduction by the underlying phenomena of the Townsend discharge. A gas-discharge lamp is an electric light using a gas-filled tube; these include fluorescent lamps, metal-halide lamps, sodium-vapor lamps, and neon lights. Specialized gas-filled tubes such as krytrons, thyratrons, and ignitrons are used as switching devices in electric devices.
A voltage regulator is a system designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage. It may use a simple feed-forward design or may include negative feedback. It may use an electromechanical mechanism, or electronic components. Depending on the design, it may be used to regulate one or more AC or DC voltages.
A current source is an electronic circuit that delivers or absorbs an electric current which is independent of the voltage across it.
A Gunn diode, also known as a transferred electron device (TED), is a form of diode, a two-terminal semiconductor electronic component, with negative resistance, used in high-frequency electronics. It is based on the "Gunn effect" discovered in 1962 by physicist J. B. Gunn. Its largest use is in electronic oscillators to generate microwaves, in applications such as radar speed guns, microwave relay data link transmitters, and automatic door openers.
A voltage-regulator tube is an electronic component used as a shunt regulator to hold a voltage constant at a pre-determined level.
An electronic component is any basic discrete electronic device or physical entity part of an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are mostly industrial products, available in a singular form and are not to be confused with electrical elements, which are conceptual abstractions representing idealized electronic components and elements. A datasheet for an electronic component is a technical document that provides detailed information about the component's specifications, characteristics, and performance.
Diode logic constructs AND and OR logic gates with diodes and resistors.
A valve RF amplifier or tube amplifier (U.S.) is a device for electrically amplifying the power of an electrical radio frequency signal.
Technical specifications and detailed information on the valve audio amplifier, including its development history.
A noise-figure meter is an instrument for measuring the noise figure of an amplifier, mixer, or similar device. An example instrument is the 1983-era Agilent 8970A. 8970A Noise Figure Meter is a Keysight product numbers that were formerly part of Agilent.
