Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Receiver Sensitivity: Characteristics and Optimization

In course

EE-440: Photonic systems and technology

The physics of optical communication components and their applications to communication systems will be covered. The course is intended to present the operation principles of contemporary optical communication systems employing optical fibers and modern op ...

Description

This lecture covers the receiver sensitivity, discussing its dependence on the desired BER, receiver and signal characteristics. It delves into the average current, shot noise, and thermal noise of 'one' and 'zero' bits, as well as the impact of APD receivers on SNR and optimum gain.

This video is available exclusively on Mediaspace for a restricted audience. Please log in to MediaSpace to access it if you have the necessary permissions.

Watch on Mediaspace

Instructor

Camille Sophie Brès

Prof. Camille-Sophie Brès is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Electrical Engineering within the School of Engineering of EPFL. Her primary research interests are centered optical communications and on parametric and nonlinear processes in optical fiber and non-silica platforms for ultrafast signal processing, all optical networks, sensing and light sources. She has authored over thirty peer-reviewed journal articles and has presented more than 15 papers at international conferences. She received the Gordon Wu Fellowship for her graduate studies, the NSF CIANs Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2009, the Early Career Woman in Engineering Award in 2016. She is a senior member of the IEEE and OSA. 2019 - present: Associate Professor in the Institute of Electrical Engineering, EPFL 2011 - 2018: Assistant Professor in the Institute of Electrical Engineering, EPFL 2010 - 2011: Assistant Project Scientist, University of California San Diego (UCSD) 2007 - 2010: Postdoc in ECE, University of California San Diego (UCSD) 2002 - 2007: Ph.D in Electrical Engineering, Princeton University 1998 - 2002: B.Eng with Honours in Electrical Engineering, McGill University

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Information engineering

Signal processing: Digital image processing

Related concepts (10)

Shot noise

Shot noise or Poisson noise is a type of noise which can be modeled by a Poisson process. In electronics shot noise originates from the discrete nature of electric charge. Shot noise also occurs in photon counting in optical devices, where shot noise is associated with the particle nature of light. In a statistical experiment such as tossing a fair coin and counting the occurrences of heads and tails, the numbers of heads and tails after many throws will differ by only a tiny percentage, while after only a few throws outcomes with a significant excess of heads over tails or vice versa are common; if an experiment with a few throws is repeated over and over, the outcomes will fluctuate a lot.

Noise (electronics)

In electronics, noise is an unwanted disturbance in an electrical signal. Noise generated by electronic devices varies greatly as it is produced by several different effects. In particular, noise is inherent in physics and central to thermodynamics. Any conductor with electrical resistance will generate thermal noise inherently. The final elimination of thermal noise in electronics can only be achieved cryogenically, and even then quantum noise would remain inherent. Electronic noise is a common component of noise in signal processing.

Johnson–Nyquist noise

Johnson–Nyquist noise (thermal noise, Johnson noise, or Nyquist noise) is the electronic noise generated by the thermal agitation of the charge carriers (usually the electrons) inside an electrical conductor at equilibrium, which happens regardless of any applied voltage. Thermal noise is present in all electrical circuits, and in sensitive electronic equipment (such as radio receivers) can drown out weak signals, and can be the limiting factor on sensitivity of electrical measuring instruments.

Colors of noise

In audio engineering, electronics, physics, and many other fields, the color of noise or noise spectrum refers to the power spectrum of a noise signal (a signal produced by a stochastic process). Different colors of noise have significantly different properties. For example, as audio signals they will sound differently to human ears, and as they will have a visibly different texture. Therefore, each application typically requires noise of a specific color.

Noise figure

Noise figure (NF) and noise factor (F) are figures of merit that indicate degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that is caused by components in a signal chain. These figures of merit are used to evaluate the performance of an amplifier or a radio receiver, with lower values indicating better performance. The noise factor is defined as the ratio of the output noise power of a device to the portion thereof attributable to thermal noise in the input termination at standard noise temperature T0 (usually 290 K).

Related lectures (34)

Understanding Noise in Electrical Systems

Explores noise sources, Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem, amplifier noise, interference effects, and quantization error in electrical systems.

Amplified Spontaneous Emission Noise in Fiber Amplifiers

Explores amplitude and phase modulation, noise figures, and detector noise in fiber amplifiers.

Intrinsic noise: Sensors in Medical Instrumentation

Explores intrinsic noise in biomedical instrumentation, including thermal and shot noise, spectral density, and noise parameters in amplifiers.

Noise in Data Acquisition

Explores noise sources in data acquisition, including thermal, shot, and amplifier noise, as well as the effects of ADC noise.

Shot Noise and Detectors