Tool 08

Receiver Sensitivity / MDS

Calculate receiver noise floor and minimum detectable signal from bandwidth, noise figure, required SNR, system loss, and temperature.

Parameters

Calculate RF receiver minimum detectable signal from bandwidth, noise figure, required SNR, system loss, and temperature. Communication data-rate terms are intentionally excluded.

Receiver Bandwidth
Noise Figure
dB
Required SNR
dB
System Loss
dB
Advanced Settings
System Temperature
K

290 K gives the familiar thermal noise density of about -174 dBm/Hz.

Sweep Graph

X Axis
Y Axis

Reference Values

Thermal Noise Density
-173.975 dBm/Hz
Bandwidth [MHz]
1.000
Bandwidth Noise
60.000 dB
Sensitivity
-98.975 dBm
Sensitivity [W]
1.266e-13

Formulas

Thermal Noise Density

Thermal noise power density at system temperature T.

N0=kTN_0 = kT

Thermal Noise Floor

Integrated thermal noise over receiver bandwidth B.

Nthermal,dBm=10log⁡10(kTB1 mW)N_{thermal,dBm} = 10\log_{10}\left(\frac{kTB}{1\,mW}\right)

Receiver Noise Floor

Receiver noise floor after adding receiver noise figure.

Nrx,dBm=Nthermal,dBm+NFN_{rx,dBm} = N_{thermal,dBm} + NF

Minimum Detectable Signal

Input signal level required to meet the selected SNR after implementation/system loss margin.

MDSdBm=Nrx,dBm+SNRreq+LMDS_{dBm} = N_{rx,dBm} + SNR_{req} + L

This tool is intentionally RF/receiver focused: no data rate, Eb/N0, coding gain, or modulation assumptions are included.