Receiver Sensitivity

Receiver sensitivity defines the minimum signal strength a receiver can receive and still do the
job it is intended to do. Sensitivity is a power level, typically stated in dBm (usually a large
negative number of dBm). It can also be stated in terms of the field strength (in microvolts per
meter). Simply stated, if the output of the link equation is a "received power" equal to or greater
than the receiver sensitivity, the link works-that is, the receiver is able to "adequately" extract the
information contained in the transmitted signal. If the received power is below the sensitivity
level, the information will be recovered at less than the specified quality.
The sensitivity of some receiver systems is expressed in terms of that power density. This is quite
appropriate when there is an intimate relationship between the antennas and receiversand the
sensitivity includes the antenna gain. However, if the sensitivity of the receiver (without the
antenna) is given in power density terms, a zero dB antenna gain is assumed. Power density has
the units of microvolts/meter (v/m), however, since the received power at the receiver is
commonly calculated 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)

Figure Receiver system sensitivity

Sensitivity Components- It is useful to consider receiver sensitivity in terms of three component

parts a shown in Figure
Sensitivity is then:
S=kTB+NF+RFSN
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 predetection signal-to-noise ratio

Receiver system sensitivity is defined at the output of the receiving antenna so that the minimum
acceptable signal arriving at the antenna can be determined by the sum of the sensitivity and the
antenna gain.

The Three Components of receiver sensitivity

kTB
Noise Figure
Required Signal-to-Noise Ratio

KTB
The thermal noise level (called KTB), the receiver system noise figure, and the signal-to-noise
ratio required to adequately recover the desired information from the received signal.
KTB is actually the product of three values:
k- Is Boltzmann's constant (1.38 X 10-23joule/oK);
T-is the operating temperature in degrees Kelvin;
B-is the effective receiver bandwidth.
kTB - defines the thermal noise power level in an ideal receiver. When the operating temperature
is set at 290K. 63F) and the receiver bandwidth is set at 1 MHz, and the result is converted to
dBm, the approximate value of kTB is -114 dBm.

Noise Figure
Noise Figure is defined as the ratio (noise/kTB) of the noise that would have to be injected into
the input of an ideal, noiseless receiver (or receiving system) to produce the noise that is actually
present at its output.

The noise figure of a receiver is the amount of thermal noise the receiver adds to a received
signal, referenced to the receiver input. The determination of the system's noise figure is a little
more complicated. Consider first the case of a very simple receiving system that has a single
receiver connected to an antenna by a lossy cable. In this case, all losses between the antenna and
the receiver are simply added to the receiver's noise figure to determine the system noise figure.
For example, if there is a cable with 10 dB of loss between the antenna output and the input of a
receiver with a 12-dB noise figure, the system noise figure is 22 dB.
Let us, consider the noise figure of a receiving system that includes a preamplifier, The values L2
(the loss between the antenna and the preamplifier in dB), G p (the preamplifier gain in dB), N p
(the preamplifier noise figure in dB), L2 (the loss between the preamplifier and the receiver in
dB), and NR (the noise figure of the receiver in dB) are defined variables.

L1 is the loss before the preamplifier, G p is the gain of the preamplifier (in dB), NP is the noise
figure of the preamplifier, L2 is the loss between the preamplifier and the receiver, and N is the
noise figure of the receiver. For example, let the preamplifier gain be 20 dB, the preamplifier
noise figure be 5 dB, loss L1 be 2dB, the loss L2 be 8dB, and the receiver noise figure be 12dB.
The noise figure (NF) of a system is determined by the formula:

NF= L1 + Np + D
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
D = is a degradation factor

The degradation factor can be determined from the chart in Figure. It 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 lines drawn on the chart reflect the component values listed earlier. The
horizontal line is at 20 + 5 - 8 = 17 and the vertical line is at 12. The two lines intersect on the 1dB degradation curve, so the degradation factor is 1 dB. Thus, the noise figure of the receiving
system in the example is:
2 dB + 5 dB + 1 dB = 8 dB

Required Signal-to-Noise Ratio

The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) required for the receiver to perform its task is highly dependent
on the type of information carried by the signal, the type of signal modulation that carries that
information, the type of processing that will be performed on the output of the receiver, and the
ultimate use to which the signal information will be put.
The predetection signal-to-noise ratio is the way we quantify the quality of the signal at the input
to the receiver system (i.e., at the output of the receiving antenna). In most communication
theory texts this is abbreviated CNR for carrier-to-noise ratio. This can be confusing; because
the received signal contains a carrier signal at the nominal transmission frequency and sidebands
which carry the transmitted information. Figure shows a diagram of the predetection signal
frequency spectrum. The total predetection signal power is divided between the carrier and the

sidebands. Thus the predetection signal-to-noise ratio is the ratio of the power of all signal
components to the noise power in the effective receiver bandwidth.

CNR is literally the ratio of the carrier power to noise. To avoid this confusion, this book uses the
abbreviation RFSNR (for radio frequency signal-to-noise ratio) when referring to the
predetection signal-to-noise ratio.