The sampling of noise for random number generation

A popular method for generating truly random numbers based on a natural phenomenon is the electronic amplification and sampling of a thermal or shot noise signal. As ail electronic systems are influenced by finite bandwidth, 1/f noise and other non-random influences, perfect randomness cannot be preserved by any practical system. This paper develops a method to quantify the impact of common circuit anomalies on the randomness of sequences produced by a noise amplifier system. Numerical simulation results are presented which verify the theoretical derivations.