A highly efficient adaptive digital predistortion amplifier for IMT-2000 base stations

We have developed the world´s most compact, energy-efficient transmitter amplifier for IMT-2000 base station systems that uses an adaptive digital predistorter (DPD). The power efficiency is improved by reducing the output back-off (the margin from the saturation point) of power amplifiers and by suppressing the resulting increase in nonlinear distortion with the DPD. This method uses a predistortion technique that estimates the distortion characteristics of amplifiers by using the least mean square (LMS) algorithm, and it adds a complementary signal to the digital baseband signal with a reverse-characteristic of the distortion. The power amplifiers we have developed achieve twice the power efficiency of conventional types. In this paper, we describe the DPD equipment and the experimental results of a DPD transmitter prototype. Currently, IMT-2000 base station systems equipped with the DPD are being shipped worldwide.