Real-Time Single Channel Over-the-Air Data Acquisition for Digital Predistortion of 5G Massive MIMO Wireless Transmitters

In this paper, a single channel over-the-air (OTA) data acquisition approach for real-time calibration of digital predistorter in multiple-input multiple-output transmitters is proposed. By using the data acquired from the far-field OTA tests, the output of each power amplifier (PA) can be virtually reconstructed and thus the linearization reference at the main beam direction can be accurately estimated. Digital predistortion (DPD) can therefore be effectively constructed without direct measurement at PA output. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can accurately estimate far-field main beam data and the proposed DPD can achieve excellent linearization performance.