A hybrid digital/RF envelope predistortion linearization system for power amplifiers

This paper presents an adaptive wide-band digitally controlled RF envelope predistortion linearization system for power amplifiers (PAs). A field-programmable gate-array-based lookup table is indexed by a digitized envelope power signal, and instantaneously adjusts the input signal amplitude and phase via an RF vector modulator to compensate for the AM-AM and AM-PM distortion. The advantages of this predistortion architecture over conventional baseband digital approaches are that a 20%-33% wider correction bandwidth is achievable at the same clock speeds, and linearization can be performed without the need for a digital baseband input signal. The timing match between the input RF signal and predistorting signal, which is one of the critical factors for performance, was investigated and adjusted to obtain optimum performance. Using three-carrier cdmaOne and wide-band multitone signals, the linearization performances for a 0.5-W GaAs heterostructure field-effect transistor, a 90-W peak-envelope-power (PEP) silicon LDMOS PA, and a 680-W PEP LDMOS PA were examined. In addition, the predistortion performance variation for different signals was studied in terms of signal envelope statistics, output powers, and PA power capacities.