NF_SNR explanation

The question:
Example: A block in a system experiences the following
Input Signal level -50 dBm
Input noise level -60 dBm
The block gain 10 dB
The block NF 15 dB
The system and the block are at 290 degree Kelvin and the above powers are defined for the signal over
30 MHz Bandwidth.
What is the signal to Noise ratio at the input and the at the output of the above block

The SNR at the input is simply the difference between the input signal level (-50 dBm) and the input
Noise level (-60 dBm) and therefore it is SNRi= -50 (-60) i= 10 dB.
But for the output signal to noise ratio we need to be careful. You may have attempted to use the
definition of Noise Factor or Noise Figure as
noise factor = Si/Ni/So/No
NF = SNRi SNRo

(1)

OR

(2)

=> 15 = 10 SNRo => SNRo =-5 dB or you may have reached to other conclusions.
Let us look at this more carefully:
Noise Factor or Noise Figure ARE defined for the THERMAL NOISE (or noise floor) not for any noise.
Unfortunately this part is missing from many books.
In the example it says that the block and the system are at 290 K. That means for a 30 MHz bandwidth:
Thermal Noise is = KTB = 1.38e-23 x 290 x 30e6 watt = -173.977 + 74.77 =-99.206 dBm. As you can see
the -60 dBm noise level that example states is not only the thermal noise (or noise floor) but also
containing some extra noise (could be from previous stages). That means we can not use -60 dBm in
Equation (2) to calculate the output noise. To make the matter more understandable we can say that
-60 dBm consists of two sources of noise
1- The thermal noise (or noise floor)
2- Some other noise

So we treat these separately:

For source number 1 the noise at the input is -99.206 dBm (as we calculated above) and the Si/Ni_1 = 50- (-99.206) = 49.206, using Equation 1 above we have
NF = 15 = Si/Ni_1 So/No_1 = 49.206 So/No_1=> So/No_1 = 34.206 dB and we know that So =Si + Gain
= -50 + 10 = -40 dBm => No_1 = -40 -34.206 = -74.206 dBm = 0.0000000380 mW
The other noise would be 10^(-60/10)-10^(-99.206/10) =9.9988E-07 mW = -60.00052145 dBm=Ni_2
(we simply subtract the thermal noise from the total noise).
This noise looks like a signal and is amplified by the block and therefore
No_2 = Ni_2 +Gain = -60.00052145 + 10 =-50.00052145 dBm= 9.9988E-06 mW
So at the output we have No = No_1 + No_2 = 0.0000000380 + 9.9988E-06= 0.0000100368 mW=
-49.9841
Therefore SNRo= -40 (-49.9841) = 9.9841 dB
As you can see though the block has a large NF (it is really noisy) but it contributes a little to the total
noise and therefore the SNR has lost only a fraction of dB.
Indeed in many transmitter designs though the power amplifier has huge NF but it only increases the
noise level by a little.

Other points regarding NF or noise factor

a- Noise Figure is defined for the matched load
b- Usually the NF is defined for the room temperature
c- The equation that calculates the system Noise Factor (F = F1 + (F2-1)/G1 +.) assumes that each
block input is impedance matched to the previous block output impedance.
d- If the blocks are not matched t this equation will not be valid
e- In this equation Gs are POWER gain not voltage gain (Not necessarily always the POWER gain (in
dB) is equal to the Voltage gain in dB)
f- If the blocks are not matched it is recommended that the Noise Voltages and Voltage gains are
used to calculate the total noise level (and then convert it to noise Factor if it is needed)