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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.
Harmonic distortion results from nonlinear transfer curves. And once an amplifier's maximum amplitude is reached, signals will be clipped, resulting in even stronger harmonic distortion. Nonlinearity may be caused by heat due to power dissipation. Also, a transistor's operating point may move with temperature.
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.
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal.In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal representing sound or a video signal representing images, in an electronic device or communication channel.
If the sine wave is applied to a linear circuit, such as a non–distortion amplifier, the output is still a sine wave (but may acquire a phase shift). However, if the sine wave is applied to a nonlinear circuit, the resulting distortion creates harmonics; frequency components at integer multiples nf of the fundamental frequency f.
If there is any non-linearity in the device, this will cause harmonic distortion at the output. This kind of distortion consists of whole-number multiples of the applied signal frequency, as well as the original frequency being present at the device output. Intermodulation distortion can produce outputs at other frequencies.
Alternatively, if the distortion products are at higher frequencies, a highpass filter can be used if its cutoff rate is sufficiently steep to not affect the expected distortion products. The output of the filter is measured as a percentage of the fundamental, and the reported value will be the distortion value.