A Study of memory effects of RF power LDMOS before and after digital predistortion

Sideband asymmetries in distortion products are created due to electrical and thermal memory effects and this can be difficult to correct for in a digital predistortion algorithm. In this study, sideband asymmetries in third-order intermodulation distortion products before and after digital predistortion were investigated using 2-tone and 2-carrier WCDMA signals. The parallel Hammerstein (PH) model was used in the digital predistortion algorithm. The sign of the asymmetries before correction were found to depend on power level. Memoryless correction lead to an increase in asymmetries for some power ranges whereas using a PH model of order 13 with only one order of memory length lead to good correction over a large power range.