Thermal Noise

A Thermal Noise is the intrinsic noise due to thermal fluctuations.

• AKA: Johnson–Nyquist noise, Johnson noise, Nyquist Noise.
• Example(s):
  • Electronic noise generated by electrons inside an conductor.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • White Noise.
• See: White Noise, Normal Distribution, Gaussian Amplitude Distribution, Impedance, Dissipation.

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References

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ Retrieved 2016-07-24
  • 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. The generic, statistical physical derivation of this noise is called the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, where generalized impedance or generalized susceptibility is used to characterize the medium.

Thermal noise in an ideal resistor is approximately white, meaning that the power spectral density is nearly constant throughout the frequency spectrum (however see the section below on extremely high frequencies). When limited to a finite bandwidth, thermal noise has a nearly Gaussian amplitude distribution.

2006

• (Perepelitsa, 2006) ⇒ Perepelitsa, D. V. (2006). Johnson noise and shot noise. Junior Lab Paper. http://web.mit.edu/dvp/Public/noise-paper.pdf

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