PM noise generated by noisy components

Abstract

This paper investigates the phase modulation (PM) noise generated by intrinsic reactance fluctuations in signal carrying components. We report the fractional fluctuation in the reactance of commonly available capacitors, inductors and varactors. Fractional fluctuations were inferred by measuring the phase shift of the carrier signal across the components and the resulting PM noise due to intrinsic fluctuations. In addition, various methods to reduce the effect of intrinsic noise in low noise circuit applications are discussed.