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Receiver System Design Part 7 Receiver System Sensitivity

Monday, January 1, 2007 - Dave Adamy

Receiver System Design Part 7 Receiver System Sensitivity

Dave Adamy
January 2006
Sensitivity
The sensitivity of a receiver system is most easily defined as the minimum signal strength it can
accept and still do the job for which it is designed. For example, a television receiver is to provide an
apparently snow free picture on the screen and a radar warning receiver (RWR) is to provide correct
identification and location of radar signals received from the RWR antennas. An important part of the
definition is that this signal strength is determined directly at the output of the systems receiving
antenna (as shown in Figure 1); so that the antenna gain (in dBi) added to the receiver system
sensitivity (in dBm) determines the field strength that must arrive at the antenna to provide the required
receiver output performance.
If system sensitivity is defined to include antenna gain, it is proper to state the sensitivity in
terms of field strength in v/m, however the sensitivity of the receiver alone can be properly stated in
terms of signal strength in dBm.
In practice (for convenience), the power arriving at the antenna is often stated in dBm. The
signal power into the receiver is stated in dBm by the following formula:
PR = PT + GT L + GR
Where: PR = received power (in dBm)
PT = Transmitter Output Power (in dBm)
GT = Transmit antenna gain (in dB)
L = Propagation loss (in dB)
GR = Receiving antenna gain (in dB)

To convert field strength (in v/m) to signal strength (in dBm) you can use the formula:
P = -77 + 20 log (E) -20 Log (F)
Where:
P = the signal strength arriving at the antenna in dBm
E = the arriving field density in v/m
F = the frequency in MHz
Conversely, the arriving signal strength can be converted to field density by the formula:
E = 10[P+77 + 20 Log (F)]/20
Where: E = field density in v/m
P = signal strength in dBm
F = frequency in MHz
As a note of interest, these formulas are based on the effective area of an ideal isotropic antenna
and the impedance of free space, producing an output power (in dBm) from an input field strength (in
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v/m).
Sensitivity Components
It is useful to consider receiver sensitivity in terms of three component parts a shown in Figure
2.
Sensitivity is then:
S = kTB + NF + RFSNR
Where: S = sensitivity in dBm
kTB is the internal thermal noise of the receiver
NF is the receiver system noise figure
RF SNR is the pre-detection signal-to-noise ratio
kTB
kTB is thermal noise in the receiver. It is the product of Boltzmans constant, the temperature of
the receiver (in degrees Kelvin) and the effective receiver bandwidth. It is common practice in EW
applications to use the standard temperature (290K) to create an expression for kTB only in terms of
bandwidth. This expression is:

kTB = -114 dBm + 10 Log (BW/1 MHz)

Where BW is the effective receiver bandwidth
The right side of this equation is often stated as -114 dBm per Megahertz. It is also stated as 174 dBm per Hertz (which is exactly the same number).
Noise Figure
Noise figure is the noise above kTB produced by the receiver system referenced to the input as
shown in Figure 3. Another way of stating this is: If the receiver produced no such noise, how much
noise would have to be injected into the input to produce the output noise observed. The noise figure of
an actual receiver is acquired from the receiver manufacturer as a specification, but our concern here is
the noise figure of the whole receiver system.
If there are no active components (i.e., amplifiers) between the antenna and the actual receiver,
the system noise figure is the sum (in dB) of the receiver noise figure and the losses of all the passive
components upstream of the receiver. (See Figure 4.) Examples of passive components are: cables,
switches (when they are on), filters and power dividers.
In order to improve receiver system sensitivity, a low-noise amplifier (called a preamplifier) can
be placed ahead of as many passive components as practical. Ideally, the preamplifier would be
connected directly to the antenna, but it is often inconvenient to provide the power required for the
preamplifier to that physical location.
The system noise figure when a preamplifier is included is determined by the following formula:
NF = L1 + NP + Deg
Where NF = the system noise figure (in dB)
L1 is the loss of all components ahead of the preamplifier (in dB)
NP = the noise figure of the preamplifier (in dB)
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Deg is a degradation factor determined from Figure 4.

In Figure 5, L1 is the loss before the preamplifier, GP is the gain of the preamplifier, NP is the
noise figure of the preamplifier, L2 is the loss between the preamplifier and the receiver (in dB), and NR
is the noise figure of the receiver (in dB).
The degradation factor is read at the intersection of a horizontal line from the ordinate value
determined by GP + NP L2 and a vertical line from NR on the abscissa. The values shown on the graph
reflect preamp gain of 20 dB, preamp noise figure of 5 dB, L2 of 8 dB, and NR of 12 dB.

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Whats Next
Next month, well finish our discussion of receiver system sensitivity. For your comments and
suggestions, Dave Adamy can be reached at dave@lynxpub.com.
Naylor Publications
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