A spectrum analyzer s noise floor has two components.
Spectrum analyzer noise floor.
A spectrum analyzer s ability to measure low level signals is limited by the noise generated inside the spectrum analyzer.
The noise figure denoted nf sa and the thermal noise energy.
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I know that long fft window lenghts or slow sweeps can pull out signal that is even bellow the noise floor becose coherent signals add 6db while incoherent noise adds only 3db thats means long fft or sweep will average the noise down more than the signal.
This sensitivity to low level signals is affected by the analyzer settings.
Press ok to start the alignment.
The wider the bandwidth the more noise is measured for each data point.
If the instrument can display noise density it simply normalizes the power measurements to a 1hz bandwidth.
Similarly a noise like signal will appear 3 db above the noise floor.
The reference level is set to 70.
6 2 hewlett packard 8590a spectrum analyzer terminated in 50 ohms just right of center to measure the spectrum analyzer s noise floor and noise factor.
The displayed function is equivalent to.
A progress indicator will appear on screen as shown in figure 4 below.
The level of the noise floor observed on a spectrum analyzer depends in part on the selected bandwidth of the measurement.
Figure 4 characterize noise floor progress indicator.
Figure 3 characterize noise floor prompt 3.
Figure 9 for example depicts 50 mhz signal that appears to be shrouded by the analyzer s noise floor.
I have another rf noob question how can spectrum analyser measure noise floor of dut.
Measurement from a spectrum analyzer showing the noise floor.
As the analyzer boots up you will see a message similar to figure 3 below prompting you to characterize the noise floor of the analyzer.
The amplitude of the thermal noise energy is given by the product of three parameters ktb where.
With a spectrum analyzer what is a good method for determining the local noise floor in the lab area around the spectrum analyzer.
If for example we wanted to determine the noise floor from 0 to 1 ghz would it be best to run a sweep using a full 1 ghz span or would it be better to pick various frequency ranges with smaller spans.