Noise figure of active loop amplifiers – the Ikin dynamic impedance method

Noise figure of active loop amplifiers – some thoughts discussed measurement of internal noise with particular application of active broadband loop antennas.

(Ikin 2016) proposes a different method of measuring noise figure NF.

Therefore, the LNA noise figure can be derived by measuring the noise with the LNA input terminated with a resistor equal to its input impedance. Then with the measurement repeated with the resistor removed, so that the LNA input is terminated by its own Dynamic Impedance. The difference in the noise ref. the above measurements will give a figure in dB which is equal to the noise reduction of the LNA verses thermal noise at 290K. Converting the dB difference into an attenuation power ratio then multiplying this by 290K gives the LNA Noise Temperature. Then using the Noise Temperature to dB conversion table yields the LNA Noise Figure. See Table 1.

The explanation is not very clear to me, and there is no mathematical proof of the technique offered… so a bit unsatisfying… but it is oft cited in ham online discussions.

I have taken the liberty to extend Ikin's Table 1 to include some more values of column 1 for comparison with a more conventional Y factor test of a receiver's noise figure.

Above is the extended table. The formulas in all cells of a column are the same, the highlighted row is for later reference.

A test setup was arranged to measure the noise output power of an IC-7300 receiver which has a sensitivity specification that hints should have a NF≅5.4dB. The relative noise output power for four conditions was recorded in the table below.

Ikin's method calls for calculating the third minus second rows, -0.17dB, and looking it up in his table. In my extended table LnaNoiseDifference=-0.17dB corresponds to NF=3.10dB.

We can find the NF using the conventional Y factor method from the values in the third and fourth rows.

The result is NF=5.14dB (quite close to the expected value based on sensistivity specification).

Ikin's so called dynamic impedance method gave quite a different result in this case, 3.10 vs 5.14dB, quite a large discrepancy.

The chart above shows the relative level of the four measurements. The value of the last two is that they can be used to determine the NF using the well established theory explained at AN 57-1.

The values in the first columns are dependent on the internal implementation of the amplifier, and cannot reliable infer NF.

References