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N7614B Signal Studio for Power Amplifier CFR, DPD and ET Test

Technical Overviews

Keysight Technologies

N7614B Signal Studio for Power Amplifier CFR, DPD and ET Test

Technical Overview

  • All-in-one test tool for performing power amplifier (PA) test flow with crest factor reduction (CFR), envelope tracking (ET), and digital pre-distortion (DPD). Supports narrow-band, wide-band, and dual-band DPD and ET.
  • User-friendly interface for parameter settings, test flow control and instrument control
  • Import user-defined I/Q waveforms, signal studio waveforms or free-of-charge pre-loaded waveforms
  • PA measurement displays include CCDF, AM-AM, AM-PM, ACP , EVM vs. Power and Power Added Efficiency (PAE)
  • DPD supports the open-loop model with Look-Up-Table (LUT), the close-loop model (Volterra and Memory Polynomial), and customer defined DPD algorithms
  • Time alignment between the ET signal and the RF signal can be calibrated manually or automatically
  • Speed improvement to apply LUT-based DPD and shaping table for ET in real-time

Simplify Signal Creation for PA Test

Keysight Technologies, Inc. Signal Studio software is a flexible test suite of signalcreation and measurement tools that will reduce the time you spend on signal simulation. With the N7614B power amplifier test software, Signal Studio’s performance-optimized test flow—validated by Keysight—enhances the characterization and verification of your devices. Through its application-specific user-interface you’ll create a test flow with CFR, and/or ET, and/or DPD technologies for power amplifier test.

Modern mobile communications, such as LTE and 802.11ac place new demands on linearity, bandwidth and power consumption in wireless components and place unprecedented battery requirements on mobile terminals or base stations. One of the most power-hungry and non-linear components is the PA. The design of the power amplifier must allow it to:

  • Increase spectral efficiency
  • Increase power added efficiency (PAE)
  • Reduce distortion and non-linearity        

Techniques such as crest factor reduction, envelope tracking and digital pre-distortion, can be implemented to increase PA efficiency. All of these methods are supported by the N7614B Signal Studio for power amplifier test software.

Crest Factor Reduction Technology

CFR is a technique used to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmitted signals so that the power amplifier can operate more efficiently. There are two CFR algorithms supported by N7614B.

  • Clipping and filtering
  • Peak windowing (Kaiser window)
  • Peak cancellation

Digital Pre-Distortion Technology

Power amplifiers with high PAR signals can create non-linearity problems. When a high power signal is applied to the PA input, the PA can’t linearly amplify the signal, possibly resulting gain saturation and distortion, and ultimately leading to signal quality degradation, such as worse ACP and EVM. DPD technology can be used to compensate for the non-linear behavior of the PA. DPD applies “inverse” distortion to the PA input signal to cancel the distortion generated by the PA. There are several types of DPD methods, including memoryless and memory, which convey the memory effect on a PA. N7614B supports the following four methods:

  • Look-up table (extract or user-defined)
  • Volterra series
  • Memory polynomial
  • Customer defined algorithms

Envelope Tracking Technology

Modern modulated signals have high PAPR. Power amplifiers that must amplify these high PAPR signals, if using a fixed bias, must be operated at a relatively high output power back-off, to avoid greatly distorting the signal when the envelope excursion is near its peak. However, as the amount of back-off increases, the power amplifier becomes less efficient. Envelope tracking (ET) is the leading solution for this issue in mobile RF front end design. ET dynamically adjusts the DC supply voltage based on the “envelope” of the PA input signal and delivers higher voltages only when needed, improving battery consumption and heat dissipation in the PA. N7614B supports ET technology, which can be applied on its own, or combined with DPD. When combined with DPD, ET can be applied and optimized before or after DPD is applied. Precise timing adjustment, down to a nanosecond or a fraction of a nanosecond, is required to optimize ET system performance. N7614B software supports:

  • Automatic time delay adjustments (based on ACP measurement results)
  • Manual time delay adjustments (based on ACP or EVM measurement results or an external oscilloscope)

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