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The total harmonic distortion (THD or THDi) is a measurement of the harmonic distortion present in a signal and is defined as the ratio of the sum of the powers of all harmonic components to the power of the fundamental frequency. Distortion factor, a closely related term, is sometimes used as a synonym.
Total harmonic distortion, or THD is a common measurement of the level of harmonic distortion present in power systems. THD can be related to either current harmonics or voltage harmonics, and it is defined as the ratio of the RMS value of all harmonics to the RMS value of the fundamental component times 100%; the DC component is neglected.
An alternative technique, total harmonic distortion measurement, cancels out the fundamental with a notch filter and measures the total remaining signal, which is total harmonic distortion plus noise; it does not give the harmonic-by-harmonic detail of an analyser. Spectrum analyzers are also used by audio engineers to assess their work.
A system may have low distortion for a steady-state signal, but not on sudden transients. In amplifiers, this problem can be traced to power supplies in some instances, to insufficient high-frequency performance or to excessive negative feedback. Related measurements are slew rate and rise time. Distortion in transient response can be hard to ...
A total harmonic distortion analyzer calculates the total harmonic content of a sinewave with some distortion, expressed as total harmonic distortion (THD). A typical application is to determine the THD of an amplifier by using a very-low-distortion sinewave input and examining the output.
Equipment distortion can be measured using a very-low-distortion audio generator as the signal source, with appropriate equipment to measure output distortion harmonic-by-harmonic with a wave analyser, or simply total harmonic distortion. A distortion of 0.0001% can be achieved by an audio signal generator with a relatively simple circuit. [4]
Harmonic distortion may be expressed in terms of the relative strength of individual components, in decibels, or the root mean square of all harmonic components: Total harmonic distortion (THD), as a percentage. The level at which harmonic distortion becomes audible depends on the exact nature of the distortion.
Noise is also typically distinguished from distortion, which is an unwanted systematic alteration of the signal waveform by the communication equipment, for example in signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SINAD) and total harmonic distortion plus noise (THD+N) measures.