Wideband Code Division Multiple Access Signal Research Articles

Power-Amplifier Stabilization Through Out-of-Band Feedback

This letter presents a power-amplifier (PA)-stabilization technique based on the low-frequency out-of-band feedback. The proposed structure replaces a conventional stability network to ensure unconditional stability at the frequencies up to the radio-frequency (RF) operating band, with the in- and above-band frequencies stabilized through the matching network design. The approach offers an alternative to inserting the lossy components in the RF signal path, which can significantly degrade the realizable in-band gain of the amplifier. The 900-MHz proof-of-concept PA based on a 10-W gallium-nitride (GaN) device is characterized under the continuous-wave (CW) and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access signal (W-CDMA) excitations and realizes 25.6-dB small-signal gain and 73% power added efficiency (PAE) at P3dB.

A high-efficiency Doherty Power Amplifier for wireless base stations

ABSTRACT This paper presents a new high-efficiency two-way Doherty Power Amplifier (DPA) with a modified output matching structure for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) low-to-medium power base station applications. A blended design is proposed using the symmetrical topology of equal rated power amplifying devices with unequal output impedances for the carrier and peaking amplifier to achieve enhanced efficiency and desired linearity in 1900 MHz band. The proposed output circuit modifications encompass the usage of parasitic capacitor compensation technique for the carrier amplifier, optimum offset line along with the Doherty combiner to achieve high efficiency over 6 to 10 dB extended range of back-off operation. The measured results of the DPA demonstrate a Power Added Efficiency (PAE) of more than 49.9% at +34 dBm W-CDMA signal power, which is between 8 and 8.5 dB back-off from the peak power level of 42.2 dBm. The DPA has a large signal power gain of 13 dB at 1960 MHz. Further, the PAE is 39.5% and linearised Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR) is −46.2 dBc, both at 10 dB back-off from peak power. In these back-off power levels, this implementation provides significant efficiency improvement using symmetrical devices and with excellent linearity.

A Memory Term Reduction Approach for Digital Pre-Distortion Using the Attention Mechanism

Over recent years, the memory effect compensated digital pre-distortion (DPD) has been widely used for linearizing wideband radio frequency power amplifiers (RF-PAs). However, with the increase of memory depth, the DPD model becomes more accurate, but the computational complexity of the DPD is significantly increased. In this paper, an approach using the attention mechanism is proposed, which can be used for locating and eliminating the memory terms with a small contribution to the performance of the DPD model so that the complexity of the DPD model is significantly reduced. The attention mechanism is employed to obtain the weighted correlation coefficient matrix of the memory effect. And the memory terms in the DPD model will be retained only if the contributions are high, which are evaluated by ensemble averaging over each diagonal of the weighted correlation coefficient matrix. To verify the applicability of the approach, a three-carrier wideband code-division multiple access signals with a bandwidth of 15 MHz and a single carrier long-term evaluation signal with a bandwidth of 20 MHz are employed for testing two Doherty RF-PAs with an operating frequency of 460 and 1900 MHz. Moreover, the generalized memory polynomial model is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The simulation and experimental results show that the modeling accuracy and the DPD linearization performance of the DPD model with and without the memory term reduction are all almost the same, which indicates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Behavioral Modeling and Predistortion of Power Amplifiers Under Sparsity Hypothesis

A simple and flexible technique for improving the modeling and predistortion of power amplifiers is presented. The technique, which relies on the sparsity assumption for the kernel coefficients of the full Volterra (FV) behavioral model, combines a greedy algorithm for the selection of the active coefficients, a maximum likelihood method for their estimation and an information criterion for determining the best model. The approach has been applied to the design of reduced-parameters FV-based digital predistorters for three power amplifiers driven with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing signals, following the LTE and DVB-T2 standards, and a multichannel wideband code-division multiple access signal. Results show that the proposed linearizers meet the spectral masks and error vector magnitude constraints of the referred standards and provide a reduction better than 45% in the number of parameters, compared to the FV predistorters.

Simultaneous generation of independent WCDMA and millimeter-wave signals using a dual-electrode MZM in ROF systems

In this paper, a novel radio-over-fiber (ROF) scheme to simultaneously generate and transmit wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and millimeter-wave (MMW) signals by using a single dual-electrode Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) is proposed. There is no apparent nonlinearity induced by the ROF system. By employing this analog ROF signal transmission technique, the highly transparent fiber-wireless networks, which are ideal for multi-standard wireless system operation, can be realized.

Envelope tracking CMOS power amplifier with high-speed CMOS envelope amplifier for mobile handsets

A high-efficiency CMOS power amplifier (PA) based on envelope tracking (ET) has been reported for a wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) and long term evolution (LTE) application. By adopting a high-speed CMOS envelope amplifier with current direction sensing, a 5% improvement in total power-added efficiency (PAE) and a 11 dB decrease in adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) are achieved with a W-CDMA signal. Moreover, the proposed PA achieves a PAE of 25.4% for a 10 MHz LTE signal at an output power (Pout) of 25.6 dBm and a gain of 24 dB.

FPGA Implementation of Orthogonal 2D Digital Predistortion System for Concurrent Dual-Band Power Amplifiers Based on Time-Division Multiplexing

A concurrent dual-band digital predistortion (DPD) system is presented to compensate for the nonlinearity of the radio-frequency power amplifiers (PAs) driven by a concurrent dual-band signal. Recently, a closed-form orthogonal polynomial basis has been introduced showing stability improvement compared with the conventional polynomial. An experimental test bed employing a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) linked to two mixed-signal system boards has also been presented. Based on the FPGA, this paper focuses on the hardware implementation of the new concurrent dual-band orthogonal DPD forward path using time-division multiplexing. Performances are evaluated with an experimental test setup cascading 1-10 W peak PAs and a dual-band signal center frequency spaced by 310 MHz. The lower side band (LSB) and upper side band (USB) are centered at 1890 and at 2200 MHz, respectively. Two signal scenarios are presented combining alternatively 1-carrier wide-band code-division multiple access (WCDMA) and 10-MHz long-term evolution (LTE) signals to a 5-carrier WCDMA signal. Experimental results show that the proposed time-division-multiplexing implementation approach gives similar performance compared with the software implementation with half of the resources. Adjacent channel power ratios (ACPRs) are reduced below -50 dBc and normalized mean-square error (NMSE) close to -40 dB.

A highly efficient channel sounding method based on cellular communications for high-speed railway scenarios

An efficient channel sounding method using cellular communication systems is proposed for high-speed railway (HSR) propagation environments. This channel measurement technique can be used conveniently to characterize different HSR scenarios, which can significantly improve the measurement efficiency. Based on downlink signals of wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and the long term evolution (LTE), principles and methodologies of HSR channel sounding are presented. Using the WCDMA signal, a measurement campaign is conducted in real-world HSR scenarios and statistical characterizations are provided using a radio network analyzer. Due to the limits of the radio network analyzer, afterwards, a software defined radio (SDR)-based channel data recorder is developed allowing users to collect the signals from different wireless cellular systems. Especially, the estimation accuracies are validated in lab by the faded signals emitted from a vector signal generator. The results show that the channel data recorder provides a particularly good match to the configured fading channels. Therefore, this measurement method can be employed to investigate the HSR channel, and to establish the channel models under the various HSR scenarios.

Analysis of the Cellular Stress Response in MCF10A Cells Exposed to Combined Radio Frequency Radiation

Exposure to environmental stressors can be measured by monitoring the cellular stress response in target cells. Here, we used the cellular stress response to investigate whether single or combined radio frequency (RF) radiation could induce stress response in human cells. Cellular stress responses in MCF10A human breast epithelial cells were characterized after exposure to 4 h of RF radiation [code division multiple access (CDMA) or CDMA plus wideband CDMA (WCDMA)] or 2 h RF radiation on 3 consecutive days. Specific absorption rate (SAR) was 4.0 W/kg for CDMA signal alone exposure and 2.0 W/kg each, 4.0 W/kg in total for combined CDMA plus WCDMA signals. Expression levels and phosphorylation states of specific heat shock proteins (HSPs) and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) were analyzed by Western blot. It was found that HSP27 and ERK1/2 phosphorylations are the most sensitive markers of the stress response in MCF10A cells exposed to heat shock or ionizing radiation. Using these markers, we demonstrated that neither one-time nor repeated single (CDMA alone) or combined (CDMA plus WCDMA) RF radiation exposure significantly altered HSP27 and ERK1/2 phosphorylations in MCF10A cells (p > 0.05). The lack of a statistically significant alteration in HSP27 and ERK1/2 phosphorylations suggests that single or combined RF radiation exposure did not elicit activation of HSP27 and ERK1/2 in MCF10A cells.

Identification of true-static predistorter using a sine wave and accurate quantification of memory effects in broadband wireless transmitters

This study proposes a new technique for the extraction of static non-linearities in wideband transmitters by launching a simple sinusoidal wave within the bandwidth of the system. The transmitter is first characterised under a two-carrier wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) drive signal and modelled using a memory polynomial model. Two types of memoryless digital predistorters are then synthesised and applied to the amplifier model. The first predistorter is derived from the averaging of the measured data under the two-carrier WCDMA signal, while the second is derived using a sinusoidal wave signal excitation. Discrepancies between the two predistortion functions are illustrated, demonstrating that the predistorter using the averaging technique is biased by the presence of linear memory effects. The results show that the residual distortions at the output of the linearised power amplifier are different and more present when using the sine wave excitation technique compared with the averaging technique. This finding indicates that the sine wave-based technique is more rigorous for de-embedding the static non-linearity from the overall non-linear behaviour, which corroborates the validity of the proposed approach in extracting the true static behaviour of the system and its pertinence for the accurate extraction and quantification of memory effects.

Performance Analysis of CDMA-Based Wireless Services Transmission Over a Turbulent RF-on-FSO Channel

This paper proposes a theoretical and experimental performance study to characterize the transmission of code-division-multiple-access-based wireless signals over a radio frequency on free-space optical (RF-FSO) system using an aperture averaging (AA) technique. First, we propose an analytical model including the carrier-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (CNIR) and outage probability expressions taking into consideration the use of the AA technique, the laser diode nonlinear distortion, and the multiple-access interference. Furthermore, we show that there is a design trade-off between an optimum optical modulation index in the transmitter side and the receiver aperture size to achieve a required average CNIR ensuring a substantial scintillation fade reduction. We thus provide preliminary criteria for optimizing both the transmitter and the receiver design of our RF-FSO system. Using an experimental RF-FSO system, we conduct investigations to characterize the deployment environment influencing the transmission of wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) signals over a 1 km free-space optical communication (FSO) link. Important performance metric parameters like the CNIR and adjacent channel leakage ratio are measured and analyzed to quantify the influence of atmospheric effects. We then validate the proposed mathematical model by performing a comparison with the experimental results obtained from the W-CDMA signal transmission over RF-FSO experiments. The presented work can be used as a baseline for the design and performance evaluation of FSO systems able to transmit different broadband wireless services signals.

Design of a memory polynomial predistorter for wideband envelope tracking amplifiers

Efficiency and linearity of the microwave power amplifier are critical elements for mobile communication systems. A memory polynomial baseband predistorter based on an indirect learning architecture is presented for improving the linearity of an envelope tracing (ET) amplifier with application to a wireless transmitter. To deal with large peak-to-average ratio (PAR) problem, a clipping procedure for the input signal is employed. Then the system performance is verified by simulation results. For a single carrier wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) signal of 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM), about 2% improvement of the error vector magnitude (EVM) is achieved at an average output power of 45.5 dBm and gain of 10.6 dB, with adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) of -64.55 dBc at offset frequency of 5 MHz. Moreover, a three-carrier WCDMA signal and a third-generation (3G) long term evolution (LTE) signal are used as test signals to demonstrate the performance of the proposed linearization scheme under different bandwidth signals.

A highly efficient and linear inverted Doherty power amplifier with unsymmetrical delay path

A highly efficient and linear inverted Doherty power amplifier (IDPA) with unsymmetrical delay path is presented. To compensate the phase difference between carrier and peaking cells, an additional offset line is inserted at the input path of the carrier cell. For verification, the IDPA with unsymmetrical delay path is implemented using two 50-W Si LDMOSFETs and tested using a continuous wave (CW) and a one-carrier wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) signals at 2.6 GHz. From the measured results, the proposed IDPA shows not only an increase in the gain and the power-added efficiency, but also superior adjacent channel leakage ratios improvement. After the digital predistortion linearization, the proposed IDPA shows better improved linearity than conventional IDPA, and also meet the linearity requirement of the WCDMA signal without decreasing efficiency. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:1302–1305, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25962

Least-Squares Phase Predistortion of a +30 dBm Class-D Outphasing RF PA in 65 nm CMOS

This paper presents a model-based phase-only predistortion method suitable for outphasing radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers (PA). The predistortion method is based on a model of the amplifier with a constant gain factor and phase rotation for each outphasing signal, and a predistorter with phase rotation only. Exploring the structure of the outphasing PA, the model estimation problem can be reformulated from a nonconvex problem into a convex least-squares problem, and the predistorter can be calculated analytically. The method has been evaluated for 5 MHz Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) uplink signals with Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) of 3.5 dB and 6.2 dB, respectively, applied to one of the first fully integrated +30 dBm Class-D outphasing RF PAs in 65 nm CMOS. At 1.95 GHz for a 5.5 V (6.0 V) supply voltage, the measured output power of the PA was +29.7 dBm (+30.5 dBm) with a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 27%. For the WCDMA signal with +26.0 dBm of channel power, the measured Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR) at 5 MHz and 10 MHz offsets were - 46.3 dBc and - 55.6 dBc with predistortion, compared to -35.5 dBc and -48.1 dBc without predistortion. For the LTE signal with +23.3 dBm of channel power, the measured ACLR at 5 MHz offset was - 43.5 dBc with predistortion, compared to -34.1 dBc without predistortion.

Phase Predistortion of a Class-D Outphasing RF Amplifier in 90 nm CMOS

This brief presents a behavioral model structure and a model-based phase-only predistortion method that are suitable for outphasing RF amplifiers. The predistortion method is based on a model of the amplifier with a constant gain factor and phase rotation for each outphasing signal, and a predistorter with phase rotation only. The method has been used for enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) and wideband code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) signals applied to a Class-D outphasing RF amplifier with an on-chip transformer used for power combining in 90-nm CMOS. The measured peak power at 2 GHz was +10.3 dBm with a drain efficiency and power-added efficiency of 39% and 33%, respectively. For an EDGE 8 phase-shift-keying (8-PSK) signal with a phase error of 3° between the two input outphasing signals, the measured power at 400 kHz offset was -65.9 dB with predistortion, compared with -53.5 dB without predistortion. For a WCDMA signal with the same phase error between the input signals, the measured adjacent channel leakage ratio at 5-MHz offset was -50.2 dBc with predistortion, compared with -38.0 dBc without predistortion.

마이너스 군지연 회로를 이용한 아날로그 피드백 증폭기의 대역폭 확장에 관한 연구

본 논문에서는 마이너스 군지연 회로를 이용하여 아날로그 RF 피드백 증폭기의 선형성 개선 대역폭을 증가시킬 수 있는 새로운 방법을 제안한다. 피드백 증폭기는 피드백 경로의 전달 시간 오차로 인하여 선형성 개선 대역폭이 제한되며, 그로 인하여 강력한 선형성 개선 효과에도 불구하고 거의 사용되지 않고 있다. 선행 연구를 통해 설계된 마이너스 군지연 회로의 군지연 특성을 응용하여 기존의 피드백 구조의 한계인 군지연 정합 문제를 해결하였다. 제작된 피드백 증폭기에 2-carrier Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) 신호를 인가하여 측정한 결과, WCDMA 기지국 하향 대역의 50 MHz 대역 전반에 걸쳐서 15 dB 이상의 선형성 개선 효과를 얻을 수 있었다. 평균 출력 전력이 28 dBm일 때 5 MHz 이격된 주파수에서 측정된 인접 채널 누설비(Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio: ACLR)는 최대 25.1 dB 개선되어 -53.2 dBc로 측정되었다. In this paper, we propose an alternative method to increase the distortion cancellation bandwidth of an analog RF feedback power amplifier by using a negative group delay circuit(NGDC). A limited distortion cancellation bandwidth due to the group delay(GD) mismatch discouraged the use of feedback technique in spite of its powerful linearization performance. With the fabricated NGDC with positive phase slope over frequency, the feedback amplifier of the proposed topology experimentally achieved adjacent channel leakage ratio(ACLR) improvement of 15 dB over 50 MHz bandwidth at wideband code division multiple access(WCDMA) downlink band when tested with 2-carrier WCDMA signal. At an average output power of 28 dBm, ACLR of 25.1 dB is improved to obtain -53.2 dBc at 5 MHz offset.

A Multimode/Multiband Power Amplifier With a Boosted Supply Modulator

A multimode/multiband power amplifier (PA) with a boosted supply modulator is developed for handset applications. A linear broadband class-F amplifier is designed to have a constant fundamental impedance across 1.7-2 GHz and its second and third harmonic impedances are located at the high-efficiency area. To reduce the circuit size for handset application, the harmonic control circuits are merged into the broadband output matching circuit for the fundamental frequency. An envelope-tracking operation delivers high efficiency for the overall power. The linearity is improved by envelope tracking (ET) through intermodulation-distortion sweet-spot tracking at the maximum output power level. The efficiency and bandwidth (BW) are enhanced by a boosted supply modulator. Multimode operation is achieved by an ET technique with a programmable hysteresis control and automatic switching current adaptation of the hybrid supply modulator. For demonstration purpose, the PA and supply modulator are implemented using an InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor and a 65-nm CMOS process. For a long-term evolution signal, the envelope-tracking (ET) PA delivers a power-added efficiency (PAE) and an error vector magnitude of 33.3%-39% and 2.5%-3.5%, respectively, at an average power of 27.8 dBm across 1.7-2 GHz. For a wideband code-division multiple-access signal across 1.7-2 GHz, the ET PA performs a PAE, an ACLR1, and an ACLR2 of 40%-46.3%, from -39 to -42.5 dBc, and -51 to -58 dBc, respectively, at an average output power of 30.1 dBm. The ET PA with an EDGE signal delivers a PAE, an ACPR1, and an ACPR2 of 37%-42%, from -56.5 to -59.3 dBc, and -63.5 to -69.5 dBc, respectively, at an average power of 28 dBm across the 300-MHz BW. These results show that the proposed design achieves highly efficient and linear power amplification for multimode/multiband wireless communication applications.

A CMOS Outphasing Power Amplifier With Integrated Single-Ended Chireix Combiner

This brief proposes an on-chip outphasing power amplifier that uses a single-ended Chireix combiner for a linear amplification with a nonlinear component amplifier. The proposed combiner structure consists of a lumped inductor and a lumped capacitor that can achieve the simple single-ended configuration of a Chireix combiner. It is also suitable for on-chip implementation with minimum efficiency deterioration. An inductance-capacitance balun using the lumped model of λ/4 and 3λ/4 transmission lines was effectively merged into a simple Chireix combiner for two outphased input signals. The relation between the output resistance and the outphasing angle of the input signals was derived to determine the maximum efficiency. A voltage-mode class-D power amplifier was used with the combiner to illustrate the combiner's effectiveness. The prototype fabricated in a 0.13-μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process shows a maximum 52% power-added efficiency (continuous wave) and a -47-dBc adjacent channel power ratio performance at a 10-MHz offset with a 1.92-GHz wideband code-division multiple-access signal.

Automated Broadband High-Dynamic-Range Nonlinear Distortion Measurement System

This paper presents an intermodulation distortion measurement system based on automated feedforward cancellation that achieves 113 dB of broadband spurious-free dynamic range for discrete tone separations down to 100 Hz. For 1-Hz tone separation, the dynamic range is 106 dB, limited by carrier phase noise. A single-tone cancellation formula is developed requiring only the power of the probing signal and the power of the combined probe and cancellation signal so that the phase shift required for cancellation can be predicted. The technique is applied to a two-path feedforward cancellation system in a bridge configuration. The effects of reflected signals and of group delay on system performance is discussed. Spurious frequency content and interchannel coupling are analyzed with respect to system linearity. Feedforward cancellation and consideration of electromagnetic radiation coupling and reverse-wave isolation effects extends the dynamic range of spectrum and vector analyzers by at least 40 dB. Application of the technique to the measurement of correlated and uncorrelated nonlinear distortion of an amplified wideband code-division multiple-access signal is presented.

Adaptive Digital Predistortion of Wireless Power Amplifiers/Transmitters Using Dynamic Real-Valued Focused Time-Delay Line Neural Networks

Neural networks (NNs) are becoming an increasingly attractive solution for power amplifier (PA) behavioral modeling, due to their excellent approximation capability. Recently, different topologies have been proposed for linearizing PAs using neural based digital predistortion, but most of the previously reported results have been simulation based and addressed the issue of linearizing static or mildly nonlinear PA models. For the first time, a realistic and experimentally validated approach towards adaptive predistortion technique, which takes advantage of the superior dynamic modeling capability of a real-valued focused time-delay neural network (RVFTDNN) for the linearization of third-generation PAs, is proposed in this paper. A comparative study of RVFTDNN and a real-valued recurrent NN has been carried out to establish RVFTDNN as an effective, robust, and easy-to-implement baseband model, which is suitable for inverse modeling of RF PAs and wireless transmitters, to be used as an effective digital predistorter. Efforts have also been made on the selection of the most efficient training algorithm during the reverse modeling of PA, based on the selected NN. The proposed model has been validated for linearizing a mildly nonlinear class AB amplifier and a strongly nonlinear Doherty PA with wideband code-division multiple access (WCDMA) signals for single- and multiple-carrier applications. The effects of memory consideration on linearization are clearly shown in the measurement results. An adjacent channel leakage ratio correction of up to 20 dB is reported due to linearization where approximately 5-dB correction is observed due to memory effect nullification for wideband multicarrier WCDMA signals.