introduction to noise in circuit design

Before we move on to other topics, it might be beneficial to discuss noise in general. When I first began developing the theory for the decision-making circuit, I believed that circuit-generated noise had to be reduced as much as possible. Over the years, my position slowly began to change as my understanding grew. I eventually realized that for my circuit to work efficiently, some noise was necessary – it was a finely tuned balancing act. Some noise was needed for any chance of success, but not too much.

Types of noise in analog frequency generation

So first, let us talk about the types of noise inherent in designing systems that incorporate analog frequency generation techniques:

Thermal Noise (Johnson-Nyquist Noise):

The first question to ask is: what is the typical noise floor for a DC circuit at room temperature (approximately 290 degrees Kelvin)? This can be estimated using thermal noise calculations, often expressed in dBm/Hz, which can be converted to dBc/Hz. At room temperature, this thermal noise floor is roughly -174 dBm/Hz.

Here, the term dBm means decibels relative to one milliwatt, and dBc means decibels relative to the carrier. A decibel is a unit used to measure the intensity of a sound or the power level of an electrical signal by comparing it with a given level on a logarithmic scale. The dBm is a unit used to measure absolute power levels, quantifying the ratio of a power level to one milliwatt on a logarithmic scale. The dBc is a unit used to express the relative level of a signal component (e.g., harmonics, spurious emissions, etc.,) with respect to the carrier signal’s power level.

The takeaway here is that dBm measures the absolute power level of the signal with reference to 1 mW, while dBc measures the relative strength of a signal component with respect to the carrier signal. If you develop a circuit with a noise floor approaching -170 decibels, you are working near the theoretical minimum noise floor possible for any circuit operating at room temperature. The only way to reduce this noise floor further would be to supercool your circuit. Trading circuit practicality for lower noise might be desirable in a non-portable lab setting, but that wasn’t my goal. It had to work in a form factor that was ultimately portable – preferably in a hand-operated unit. To be honest, if I could only make a clunky stationary device resembling the old-style computers of the 1960s, occupying an entire building filled with boxy electronics cooled by huge coolers, I would have considered my effort a failure, even if it had worked.

How this applies to the DMC/RLB

Important DMC Noise Types:

When examining the block diagram of the 2015 DMC, you’ll notice various inputs feeding into the device. For simplicity, let’s focus on the circuit path that delivers the 1Hz - 10Hz, or whatever your pipeline frequency happens to be,  sine wave to the DMC. However, the principles discussed here apply equally to all other inputs in both the DMC and the RLB.

Despite my efforts to minimize noise, several types of noise infiltrated the DMC circuit along with the desired waveform. Additionally, noise was generated by the operation of semiconductors and integrated circuits. The main types of noise include:

1.   Phase Noise: This manifests as random fluctuations in the phase of a waveform. Even a high-quality oscillator cannot produce a single pure frequency due to phase noise. Instead,  they generate a narrow band of closely adjacent, continuously varying frequencies. These components spread the power of the output signal, creating noise sidebands that degrade signal purity.

2.   Thermal Noise (Johnson-Nyquist Noise): This is the same noise floor mentioned above, caused by the random thermal motion of charge carriers (usually electrons) within an electrical conductor. Thermal noise is unavoidable and present in all circuit components.

3.   Shot Noise: This noise arises from the discrete nature of electric charge. It is typically observed in devices like diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits, where electrons cross a potential barrier.

4.   Flicker Noise (1/f Noise): This type of noise worsens as frequency decreases, particularly affecting the low frequencies defined by the pipeline bandwidth. It can be caused by impurities in the conductive layer of circuitry and recombination noise in solid-state electronic devices. Flicker noise poses a significant challenge when generating controllable QTEs. Every time I hear someone has figured out a way to make a room temperature superconductor, my heart skips a beat or two. Superconducting pathways would really minimize flicker noise in my circuit...

Noise in Quantum superluminal Circuits

The bottom line is how this affects the waveform of the frequency generated and input into the DMC. Phase noise ensures that the oscillator’s output is not a single pure frequency but rather a narrow range of frequencies that differ slightly from each other. This phase noise guarantees that the specific frequency seen by the DMC is random within a narrow bandwidth at any given moment. Other forms of noise also act to distort the waveform away from mathematical purity, meaning any P2 wave created by the DMC reflects this statistical deviation.

practical considerations for noise reduction

As mentioned earlier on the website, the oscillator feeding the DMC is part of a matched pair, with the other oscillator feeding the reintegration logic block (RLB) with a nearly identical signal of the same frequency and waveform as generated by the oscillator within the DMC. The key phrase being ‘nearly identical signal’, because no pair of oscillators operating independently with respect to each other can ever be on the same exact frequency simultaneously. QTEC, being a quantum-based system, requires both frequencies to be exactly the same. Initially, there is no connection between these two systems, and the transmitter and receiver are isolated from each other. Therefore, it is impossible to design a tuning system that relies on feedback to detect the transmitter’s operational frequency. The only known aspect of the transmitting system is its main frequency of operation and the waveform, making it possible to design a circuit that will slowly shift the oscillator in the RLB until it encounters the P2 frequency waveform created by the DMC. Enter the hunter-seeker circuit.

Application to the Dmc / rlb

Noise in the DMC Circuit

The hunter-seeker circuit’s role is to slowly sweep the RLB oscillators’ output until it precisely matches the exact frequency output of the DMC in the transmitter. If the oscillators possess too high a spectral purity, even if the RLB intersects with the DMC output, the link would occur too quickly to generate a usable signal to lock onto. The benefit of noise is that it provides a kind of bandwidth. For instance, if the center frequency is intended to be 10 Hz, noise causes slight variations in the actual waveform. In a high quality oscillator set-up, the instantaneous real-time frequency might range from 9.99999999 Hz to 10.00000001 Hz, resulting in a bandwidth of 2 parts in 50 million, or 0.00000002 Hz. Despite this narrow range, it provides sufficient linkage for the hunter-seeker to lock onto and track.

It is crucial to not lose track of what's happening when the H-S tries, and eventually locks onto, the P2 wave produced by the DMC. When the H-S starts scanning the frequency range, there's no signal for it to latch onto at first. Eventually, it crosses the exact frequency output by the DMC. At this point, the waveforms within the DMC and the RLB can become entangled, generating a QTE detected by the H-S circuit. This lock-on is brief, lasting only as long as the oscillators remain in sync. 

The H-S circuit then reverses its scanning procedure, and at the same time significantly slows the sweep time. This is how it hunts down the elusive DMC waveform, and once it exists due to system entanglement of the noise operators, it locks on using the detected QTEs as input. The process is stochastically dynamic, and if all goes well, the H-S circuit keeps the RLB oscillator hovering around the DMC parameters, enabling effective communication.

Imagine it like a blind, hobbled hunter trying to catch a bear during a midnight blizzard - utter chaos and unpredictability.  But with a stroke of luck, the hunter finally corners the bear just long enough to make meaningful contact.

From the hunter-seeker's perspective within the RLB, as it scans the narrow bandwidth defined by the pipeline center frequency (set by the user as a known parameter of the DMC, here 10 Hz), it will eventually cause the RLB oscillator to encounter the narrow frequency range defined by the noise parameters existing within the DMC. When this happens, detection events will begin to occur, providing the input for the hunter-seeker to lock onto. This process is analogous to how a phase-locked loop tuning circuit in a conventional FM radio operates: H-S lock-on occurs at the point of maximum detection events, at which point the onboard circuitry enters maintenance mode and only adjusts when lock-on starts to deviate from maximum.