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Noise Figure Analyzers
Fast, accurate noise figure measurements
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Phase Noise Analyzers
High-sensitivity phase noise measurements
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Keysight phase noise analyzer software enhances signal analysis with enhanced features like user-defined cross-correlation, transient and VCO characterization, and spectrum monitoring. Pair your analyzer with the mixers or downconverters needed to make the right measurements for your application.
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Frequently asked questions
The noise figure of a network is the ratio of the signal-to-noise power ratio at the input to the signal-to-noise power ratio at the output. Thus, the noise figure of a network is the decrease or degradation in the signal-to-noise ratio as the signal goes through the network.
A perfect amplifier would amplify the noise at its input along with the signal, maintaining the same signal-to-noise ratio at its input and output (the source of input noise is often thermal noise associated with the Earth’s surface temperature or with losses in the system). A realistic amplifier, however, also adds some extra noise from its own components and degrades the signal-to-noise ratio. A low noise figure means that very little noise is added by the network. The concept of noise figure only fits networks with at least one input and one output port that process signals.
Any discussion of phase noise is mostly concerned with a signal's frequency stability. Long-term stability, perhaps of an oscillator, may be characterized in terms of hours, days, months, or even years. Short-term stability refers to frequency changes that occur over a period of a few seconds or less. These short-cycle variations have a much greater effect on systems that rely on extreme processing to extract more information from a signal.
Short-term stability can be described in many ways, but the most common is single-sideband (SSB) phase noise. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines SSB phase noise as the ratio of two power quantities: the power density at a specific frequency offset from the carrier and the total power of the carrier signal. This is most commonly measured in a 1-Hz bandwidth at a frequency “f” away from the carrier and the units are dBc/Hz or “decibels below carrier frequency power over a 1-Hz bandwidth.”
Absolute Phase Noise
The measurement of an oscillator or synthesizer- one port measurement of a signal generated by the entire signal chain (e.g. a signal generator consisting of an entire RF chain of amplifiers, multipliers, mixers, etc.)
Residual Phase Noise
This is the additive (e.g. additional) phase noise that a device contributes to a signal - it can be the additional noise a synthesizer adds to an OCXO (oven-controlled crystal oscillator) reference oscillator, or it can be phase noise added by multipliers, dividers, mixers, up/downconverters, and amplifiers.