System-level performance study of a multistandard outphasing transmitter using optimised multilevels

This paper analyses an energy-efficient multimode and multistandard LINC transmitter. This architecture is based on controlling the output power of highly efficient power amplifiers. Compared with the classical LINC, an multilevel selection algorithm is developed to optimise the levels depedent on the signal statistics in order to boost average power efficiency. Based on this algorithm, a multilevel LINC transmitter is implemented on a system-level. The architecture can be configured for different standards, such as EDGE, WCDMA and LTE. Models and algorithm are developed in SystemC and Matlab for the exploration of design specification and verification of the complete system. Simulation results show that compared with the classical LINC, average power added efficiency is improved from 10.5 % to 29.26 % for an uplink LTE signal with a peak-to-average power ratio of 6 dB. Futhermore, compared with equal-distance multilevel LINC systems, an efficiency boosting between 6 % and 0.5 % points can also be achieved for 2 to 8 multilevels.