ACPR improvement limitations of predistortion linearizer for nonlinear RF power amplifiers

This paper investigates limitations of adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) improvement in predistortion (pre-D) linearizer used with nonlinear RF power amplifiers (PAs) when the PA model is not perfectly acquired in pre-D design. The error between the physical PA and the nonlinear model is expanded by pre-D function and its power spectral density (PSD) works as limitations in ACPR improvement of the pre-D linearizer. An analytical estimation of ACPR limitations in RF PAs driven by digitally modulated input signal is derived using a formulation of auto-correlation function. The analysis technique is validated with the example of the memory polynomial PA model with the quasi-memoryless pre-D linearizer. The technique is also verified by comparing predicted ACPR limitation with measured limitation for a RF PA with 802.11g input signal.