Receiver Sensitivity

Sensitivity is the minimum signal level required for the receiver to demodulate the signal with an acceptable error rate.

The Noise Floor

The fundamental limit of sensitivity is thermal noise.

$N = -174 + 10 \log_{10}(B)$ Where B is bandwidth in Hz.

Calculating Sensitivity

$S_{dBm} = N + NF + SNR_{required}$

• NF (Noise Figure): How much noise the receiver hardware itself adds.
• SNR: The Signal-to-Noise ratio required by the modulation scheme (e.g., QPSK, 16-QAM).