A Technique to Extend the Bandwidth of an RF Power Amplifier Test Bed

In this paper, a method for increasing the bandwidth of a test bed for dynamic characterization of power amplifiers (PAs) is described. The technique is readily implemented using commercially available instruments, which makes it suitable for, e.g., production testing. The bandwidth extension techni...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on instrumentation and measurement 2007-08, Vol.56 (4), p.1488-1494
Main Authors: Wisell, D.., Ronnow, D.., Handel, P..
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplifier model
Amplifiers
Bandwidth
bandwidth extension
Broadband amplifiers
Dynamic range
Dynamics
Information technology
Informationsteknik
Instruments
Mathematical models
measurement system
power amplifier (PA)
Power amplifiers
Production
Radio frequency
Radiofrequency amplifiers
Signal processing
Signalbehandling
Stations
TECHNOLOGY
TEKNIKVETENSKAP
test bed
Testing
Wideband
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Description
Summary:In this paper, a method for increasing the bandwidth of a test bed for dynamic characterization of power amplifiers (PAs) is described. The technique is readily implemented using commercially available instruments, which makes it suitable for, e.g., production testing. The bandwidth extension technique is combined with coherent averaging of the measurements in order to simultaneously increase the bandwidth and dynamic range of the test bed. The errors in the obtained wideband signal are also estimated. The method is evaluated experimentally on a base station PA for the third-generation wideband code division multiple access system and on a Doherty amplifier. A tenfold increase in bandwidth to a total of 144 MHz and a more than 10-dB increase in dynamic range to 78 dB were obtained in practice. In addition, the obtained wideband signal is used for behavioral amplifier modeling.
ISSN:0018-9456
1557-9662
1557-9662
DOI:10.1109/TIM.2007.900101