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EKT343 Principle of Communication Engineering

Chapter 1
(part 2)

GAIN, ATTENUATION, DECIBELS & NOISE

Gain, Attenuation, and Decibels

Most circuits in electronic communication are used to

manipulate signals to produce a desired result.

All signal processing circuits involve:
Gain
Attenuation

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Gain, Attenuation, and Decibels

Gain
Gain means amplification. It is the ratio of a circuits output to
its input.
AV =

output
input

Vout
Vin

An amplifier has gain.

Gain, Attenuation, and Decibels

Most amplifiers are also power amplifiers, so the same

procedure can be used to calculate power gain AP

where Pin is the power input and Pout is the power
output.
Power gain (Ap) = Pout / Pin

Example:

The power output of an amplifier is 6 watts (W). The

power gain is 80. What is the input power?
Ap = Pout / Pin therefore Pin = Pout / Ap
Pin = 6 / 80 = 0.075 W = 75 mW

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Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
An amplifier is cascaded when two or more stages

are connected together.

The overall gain is the product of the individual circuit
gains.
Example:

Three cascaded amplifiers have power gains of 5,

2, and 17. The input power is 40 mW. What is the
output power?
Ap = A1 A2 A3 = 5 2 17 = 170
Ap = Pout / Pin therefore Pout = ApPin
Pout = 170 (40 10-3) = 6.8W

Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
Attenuation
Attenuation refers to a loss introduced by a circuit or component. If

the output signal is lower in amplitude than the input, the circuit has
loss or attenuation.
The letter A is used to represent attenuation
Attenuation A = output/input = Vout/Vin
Circuits that introduce attenuation have a gain that is less than 1.
With cascaded circuits, the total attenuation is the

product of the individual attenuations.

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Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels

A voltage divider introduces attenuation.

Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels

Total attenuation is the product of individual attenuations of each cascaded circuit.

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Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
Decibels
The decibel (dB) is a unit of measure used to express the gain or

loss of a circuit.
The decibel was originally created to express hearing

response.
A decibel is one-tenth of a bel.
When gain and attenuation are both converted into

decibels, the overall gain or attenuation of a circuit

can be computed by adding individual gains or
attenuations, expressed in decibels.

Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
Decibels: Decibel Calculations
Voltage Gain or Attenuation

dB = 20 log Vout/ Vin

Current Gain or Attenuation

dB = 20 log Iout/ Iin

Power Gain or Attenuation

dB = 10 log Pout/ Pin

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Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
Decibels: Decibel Calculations
Example:
An amplifier has an input of 3 mV and an output of 5 V. What is the
gain in decibels?
dB = 20 log 5/0.003
= 20 log 1666.67
= 20 (3.22)
= 64.4

Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
Decibels: Decibel Calculations
Example:
A filter has a power input of 50 mW and an output of 2 mW. What is
the gain or attenuation?
dB = 10 log (2/50)
= 10 log (0.04)
= 10 (1.398)
= 13.98
If the decibel figure is positive, that denotes a gain.

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Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
Example:
A power amplifier with a 40
dB gain has an output power
of 100 W. What is the input
power?
Solution:
dB = 10 log (Pout/ Pin )

dB/10 = log (Pout/ Pin )

40/10 = log (Pout/ Pin )
4 = log (Pout/ Pin )

antilog = log^(-1)

Antilog 4 = antilog (log

(Pout/ Pin ) )

(Pout/ Pin ) =10^4

= 10,000
Pin =Pout/10000
= 100/10000
= 0.01 W
= 10 mW

Gain, Attenuation,
and Decibels
Decibels: dBm and dBc
When a decibel value is computed by comparing a power value to

1 mW, the result is a value called the dBm. This is a useful

reference value.
The value dBc is a decibel gain attenuation figure where the

reference is the carrier.

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Exercises
1. What is the gain of an amplifier with an output of 1.5V

and an input of 30V?

2. What is the attenuation of a voltage divider like that in

Figure 2.3,where R1 is 3.3K-ohms and R2 is 5.1K-ohms?

3. What is the overall gain or attenuation of the

combination formed by cascading the circuit described in

exercises 1 and 2?

Exercises (cont..)
4. The AM receiver radio have three-stages comprised of
two amplifiers and one filter with an input power Pin=-10
dBm , and absolute power gains of Ap1 =100, Ap2=0.7
and Ap3=2000. Determine:
(i) The dB gain of each stage and the overall gain
in dB.
(ii) Output power (Po ) in dBm and watts.
(iii) What is the difference between a positive and
negative decibel (dB)?

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Exercises
Given a four-stage system with an input power of Pin
= -15dBm with the absolute power gain of Ap1 = 400,
while Ap2 = 2Ap1, Ap4 = 1x10-4Ap2 and Ap3 = 5Ap4.Determine:

5.

the overall gain in dB.

the dB gain of each stage.
the output power in dBm and watt.

CHAPTER 1
Noise

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EKT343 Principle of Communication Engineering

19

Noise, interference and distortion

} Noise
unwanted signals that coincide with the desired signals.
Two type of noise: internal and external noise.
} Internal noise
Caused by internal devices/components in the circuits.
} External noise
noise that is generated outside the circuit.
E.g. atmospheric noise, solar noise, cosmic noise, man made
noise.

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Noise, interference and distortion (Contd)

Interference
Contamination by extraneous signals from human sources.
E.g. from other transmitters, power lines and machineries.
Occurs most often in radio systems whose receiving

antennas usually intercept several signals at the same time

One type of noise.
Distortion
Signals or waves perturbation caused by imperfect response

of the system to the desired signal itself.

May be corrected or reduced with the help of equalizers.

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Noise Temperature & Equivalent noise

Temperature
Thermal noise directly proportional to temperature ~ can

be expressed in degrees, watts or volts.

P =kTB
n

Where
Pn @ N = noise power (Watt)
k = Boltzman constant (1.38 x 10-23 J/K)
T = environmental temperature (K) [Add 273 to C]
B = Bandwidth of system (Hz)

EKT343 Principle of Communication

Engineering

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Contd
Equivalent noise temperature, (Te)

Te = T(F-1)
Where T = environmental temperature
(kelvin)
F = Noise factor
Te often used in low noise, sophisticated radio receivers

rather than noise figure.

EKT343 Principle of Communication

Engineering

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EKT343 Principle of Communication Engineering

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Example 1
A domestic television receives antenna

delivers a sky noise power of -105 dBm to

a matched coaxial feeder in a radio
frequency bandwidth of 8 MHz. Find the
antenna noise temperature.

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Insertion loss
IL is a parameter associated with the frequencies

that fall within the passband of a filter.

The ratio of the power transferred to a load with a
filter in the circuit to the power transferred to a
load without the filter.
IL (dB) = 10 log (Pout /Pin)

EKT343 Principle of Communication

Engineering

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EKT343 Principle of Communication Engineering

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Signal to Noise Ratio

SNR is ratio of signal power, S to noise power, N.

SNR = 10 log

Noise Factor, F

Noise Figure, NF

F =

S
dB
N

Si N i
So N o

NF = 10 log F
S N
= 10 log i i (dB)
So N o

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Exercise

FOR A NONIDEAL AMPLIFIER WITH THE FOLLOWING

PARAMETERS:

TABLE 1
DETERMINE THE FOLLOWING:
1)
INPUT SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO (DB).
2)
OUTPUT SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO (DB).
3)
NOISE FACTOR AND NOISE FIGURE.
4)
EQUIVALENT NOISE TEMPERATURE.

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