Phase-Only Multilevel LINC Architecture for Linearizing Chireix Outphasing Power Amplifiers

IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 32, pp. 1255–1258

Abstract

This letter presents a distinct approach to linearize Chireix outphasing power amplifiers (PAs), which is leveraging the multilevel linear-amplification-with-nonlinear-components (LINC) concept. The proposed architecture operates only on phase-modulated signals and is therefore compatible with digital-like signal generation and distribution. The analysis of the architecture and a calibration algorithm are presented. The validity of the proposed concept is verified by the implementation of a prototype operating at 3.5 GHz, providing 42 dBm of peak output power. The prototype achieves −40.8 and −39.4 dB adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) and 1.73% and 1.94% error vector magnitude (EVM) for a 64- quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulated signal with 6.5 dB PAPR at 10 and 20 MHz bandwidth (BW), respectively. For an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulated signal with 8.3 dB PAPR at 10 MHz BW, the ACLR and EVM are −40.2 dB and 2.64%, respectively.

Authors 2

1. Stefan Mueller Aachen Chair of High Frequency Electronics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of High Frequency Electronics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

2. Renato Negra Aachen Chair of High Frequency Electronics

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of High Frequency Electronics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany