The impact of RF front-end characteristics on the spectral regrowth of communications signals

Author

Gard, Kevin G. ; Larson, Lawrence E. ; Steer, Michael B.

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng. Dept., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC, USA

Volume

53

Issue

6

fYear

2005

fDate

6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2179

Lastpage

2186

Abstract

The nonlinear characteristic of an RF front-end results in in-band distortion and spectral regrowth of digitally modulated signals with distortion being dependent on the statistical variation of the signal. In this paper, the interaction of the nonlinear response with the signal is explored using a time-averaged autocorrelation analysis applied to several limiter-amplifier models having characteristics ranging from soft-to-hard amplitude limiting. The analysis is verified by comparing measured and predicted adjacent channel power rejection for a code-division multiple-access amplifier.

Keywords

cellular radio; code division multiple access; correlation methods; intermodulation distortion; microwave amplifiers; radiofrequency interference; spectral analysis; RF envelope model; RF front-end characteristics; adjacent channel interference; adjacent channel power ratio; autocorrelation function; bandpass nonlinearity; cellular radio; code-division multiple-access amplifier; communications signal; complex Gaussian process; correlation theory; digital radio; digital signals; digitally modulated carrier; inband distortion; limiter-amplifier model; limiting amplifier model; microwave amplifier; nonlinear characteristic; nonlinear distortion; power rejection; quadrature input signal; spectral analysis; spectral regrowth; statistical analysis; statistical variation; time-averaged autocorrelation analysis; Autocorrelation; Digital modulation; Distortion measurement; Multiaccess communication; Nonlinear distortion; Power amplifiers; Power measurement; RF signals; Radio frequency; Signal analysis; Adjacent channel interference; Gaussian processes; RF envelope model; adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR); autocorrelation function; bandpass nonlinearity; behavioral models; cellular radio; code division multiple access; code-division multiple-access (CDMA) signal; complex Gaussian process; correlation; correlation theory; digital radio; digital radio system; digital signals; digitally modulated carrier; limiting amplifier; limiting-amplifier model; microwave amplifiers; modulation; nonlinear amplifier; nonlinear distortion; nonlinear transformation; quadrature input signal; spectral analysis; spectral regrowth; statistical analysis;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2005.848801

Filename

1440739