Nonlinear Dynamic RF System Characterization: Envelope Intermodulation Distortion Profiles—A Noise Power Ratio-Based Approach

Figueiredo, Ricardo; Carvalho, Nuno Borges; Piacibello, Anna; Camarchia, Vittorio

doi:10.1109/tmtt.2021.3092398

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The linearity of the stage is evaluated by measuring the IMD3 in a two‐tone test with 20 MHz tone spacing 39 . Even if other metrics are available, such as AM‐AM and AM‐PM distortion 40 or more sophisticated system‐level metrics (adjacent channel power ratio, noise‐to‐power ratio 41 ), they are often adopted to benchmark the linearity of the amplifier in real field conditions, while the two‐tone test is mainly adopted during the design phase as an initial estimation of the linearity.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the impact of prototyping‐related parasitic effects in a hybrid GaN power amplifier for 5G FR1 applications

Bartolotti,

Zhang,

Shi

et al. 2023

Int J Numerical Modelling

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This article analyses the impact of parasitic effects encountered in the manufacturing of a Gallium Nitride power amplifier optimized for a specific trade‐off of efficiency and linearity at 5G FR1 frequencies. The analysis focuses on an example based on a packaged transistor and implemented in hybrid technology, adopting a two‐layer printed circuit board for passive distributed elements and surface‐mount lumped components. The design is summarized, and the focus is then posed on the comparison of simulated and measured results, the main causes of inaccuracy in their agreement, and a simple way of reproducing these in simulation. The mechanical stability of the assembly and the sensitivity of the second harmonic control are identified as the main sources of performance degradation. These effects are correctly modeled at the simulation level thanks to the insertion of specific parasitic lumped elements but could not be fully eliminated at the experimental level in this specific prototype. However, post‐tuning performed on the prototype, guided by the proposed analysis, still allows to reach satisfactory performance although somewhat sub‐optimal compared to the one expected from simulations. At 3.5 GHz, the re‐tuned PA demonstrates a measured output power in excess of 37.5 dBm at saturation, with associated gain higher than 14 dB and PAE of 60%. In a 2‐tone test with 20 MHz spacing, the IMD3 remains lower than −30 dBc up to 29 dBm of output power with a corresponding PAE of the order of 32%.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the impact of prototyping‐related parasitic effects in a hybrid GaN power amplifier for 5G FR1 applications

Bartolotti,

Zhang,

Shi

et al. 2023

Int J Numerical Modelling

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“…Such a characterization was carried out by varying the base-plate temperature and with and without the power flexibility, to correctly address the linearity-efficiency tradeoff. Notably, the NPR is defined and evaluated as the ratio of the output power spectral density (PSD) of the analyzed system with the notch filter presented and measured within the filter band, to the output PSD without the notch filter and measured within the same notch filter bandwidth [27]. Fig.…”

Section: B Large-signal Characterization and Power Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

An Efficient and Linear SSPA With Embedded Power Flexibility for Ka-Band Downlink SatCom Applications

Giofrè,

Cabrìa,

Leblanc

et al. 2024

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

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This article presents the design, realization, and experimental characterization of a solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) conceived for K a-band downlink (17.3-20.2 GHz) satellite communication (SatCom) applications. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first space-borne SSPA realized for this peculiar application to achieve a technology readiness level of 5, entirely based on European technologies. All the activities carried out during the development phase will be discussed, starting from the power budget analysis, moving through the ad hoc design and characterization of the elementary 10-W microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) power amplifier (PA) in the 100-nm gate length gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon technology, and ending with the circuit solutions conceived to achieve state-of-theart performance like saturated output power larger than 125 W with a gain and an overall efficiency better than 70 dB and 22%, respectively, while satisfying all the space-derating rules. The SSPA is composed of two subunits: the radio-frequency tray (RFT) to amplify the useful RF signal and the electronic power conditioner (EPC) to interface the module with the satellite primary bus, to actuate remote telecommand/telemetry services and to set different operating modes. The latter is based on a space-qualified microcontroller, whereas the former exploits a low-loss radial splitter/combiner structure in the waveguide to spatially combine the power provided by 16 elementary 10-W MMIC PA. The RFT also includes an input and output isolator, a gain control unit (GCU), a driver, and an analog linearizer. The latter helps to achieve a noise-to-power ratio (NPR) better than 18 dB when the SSPA is tested with a white-noise-like signal having a peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of 10 dB and an instantaneous bandwidth of 2.9 GHz. In this working condition, the SSPA provides an average output power and efficiency close to 100 W and 22%, respectively. Finally, it is worth mentioning that the SSPA is equipped with a power flexibility feature that allows it to reduce its power consumption up to 20%, depending on the actual RF power needed at the satellite level.

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“…This is even more critical in case of DPAs, where it has been demonstrated that the inherent load modulation of this architecture affects in a detrimental way the AM/PM, if not properly counteracted. Recently, in many applications where the radio-frequency (RF) and instantaneous bandwidths are significant, the degree of linearity required from PA is often specified in terms of Noise-to-Power Ratio (NPR) [10], [11], which is evaluated as the ratio between the nonlinear distortion noise and the signal power spectral density at the output of the DPA when Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) with a central notch is applied at the input. There are closed-form relations, that have been experimentally proved [12], to correlate NPR to other linearity figures as inter-modulation distortion (IMD) rejection and AM/PM.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AM/PM Characterization of Wideband Power Amplifiers

Piacibello

Rubio

Quaglia

et al. 2022

2022 IEEE Topical Conference on RF/Microwave Power Amplifiers for Radio and Wireless Applications (PAWR)

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This paper presents the linearity assessment of two state-of-the-art wideband power amplifiers, a single stage class AB and a two-way 6 dB Doherty, in terms of amplitude-to-phase-modulation (AM/PM) distortion. The simulated and measured characteristics are shown and discussed. The class AB amplifier maintains AM/PM within 6 • from 1 to 4 GHz, i.e. on a 120% bandwidth, while the Doherty amplifier has similar performance from 2.2 to 2.9 GHz, i.e. on a 28% bandwidth. This characterization campaign highlights the superior linearity of the class AB amplifier over relative bandwidths that exceed 100% but, at the same time, the potential of the Doherty amplifier to maintain very limited (within 10 • ) amplitude-to-phase-modulation distortion over bandwidths up to around 60%. Both power amplifiers are well in line with the state of the art also in terms of linearity, besides output power, gain, and efficiency performance.

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Nonlinear Dynamic RF System Characterization: Envelope Intermodulation Distortion Profiles—A Noise Power Ratio-Based Approach

Cited by 18 publications

References 24 publications

Analysis of the impact of prototyping‐related parasitic effects in a hybrid GaN power amplifier for 5G FR1 applications

Analysis of the impact of prototyping‐related parasitic effects in a hybrid GaN power amplifier for 5G FR1 applications

An Efficient and Linear SSPA With Embedded Power Flexibility for Ka-Band Downlink SatCom Applications

AM/PM Characterization of Wideband Power Amplifiers

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