A least-squares/Newton method for digital predistortion of wideband signals

Power amplifiers (PAs) are essential in communication systems, but are inherently nonlinear. To achieve linearity with good efficiency, PA linearization is necessary. Digital baseband predistortion is a highly cost-effective way to linearize PAs, but most existing architectures assume that the PA has a memoryless nonlinearity. For wider bandwidth applications, such as wideband code-division multiple access, PA memory effects can no longer be ignored. Therefore, in order to achieve good linearization performance, the predistorter needs to also have memory structure. In this paper, we propose a new model for the wideband predistorter and a least-squares(LS)/Newton algorithm to estimate the model parameters. Performance of the LS/Newton algorithm is studied through computer simulations. Good linearization performance is achieved by using the new model in an experimental testbed.