This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-70639, filed on Oct. 10, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is herein in its entirety incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital feedback linearizing apparatus and method to linearize a power amplifier (PA) to improve the linearity of a mobile communication base station PA, and more particularly, to a digital feedback linearizing apparatus and method to linearize a PA using a digital signal process (DSP) and a feedback technology, in which a predistorted signal required for linearization is generated by adding an input signal input through a predetermined path to an inverse distortion component corresponding to a distortion component of a PA and in which a linearly amplified output signal is obtained by passing the predistorted signal through the PA, so that linearity of the PA is effectively improved.
Also, the present invention relates to a digital feedback linearizing apparatus and method, which generates the optimal predistorted signal for an input signal by obtaining an inverse distortion component corresponding to the amplitude of the input signal from a previously formed and stored lookup table.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known to those skilled in the art, mobile base station power amplifiers preferably output high power signals without distortion. In particular, since a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) technology adopts multi-carrier (MC) transmission, standards for linearity become increasingly important. To ensure superior linearity, various linearizing techniques and apparatuses adopting such techniques such as analog predistorters, analog feedback linearizers, feedforward linearizers, and digital predistorters have been used.
Among such linearizing apparatuses, analog predistorters and analog feedback linearizers have narrowband frequency characteristics and have trouble in linearizing input signals to target values. Feedforward linearizers have been most commonly used so far and have superior linearizing characteristics, but have problems such as low cost-competitiveness, high heat emission, and large size.
To solve the above problems, digital predistorters have been developed, which use digital signal processing, have a wide frequency band, show superior linearity improvement, have high cost- and size-competitiveness, and are very suitable for base station linearizers. However, if the digital predistorters themselves have many errors, error tolerance of PAs in which they are used is not large. As a result, it is difficult to cancel distortion of the PAs as desired by standards.
A conventional analog feedback predistorter used as a linearizer for a PA which is shown in
A frequency domain signal Y(f) of the output signal y(t) output from the conventional analog feedback predistorter of
where Gm, Gu, and Gy respectively denote a gain of each path shown in
The first term of Equation 1.a indicates an amplified main signal and the second term indicates a cancelled IM signal. To completely cancel the IM signal, the second term should be made to approximate 0. To this end, it is desirable to set Gu to 1. Assuming that Gu approximates 1, Equation (1.a) can be expressed as approximation Equation (1.b) that clearly shows a feedback operation. The total gain GPD of the analog feedback predistorter is determined by the gain of a feedback loop and is equal to −1/Gy. An IM component is divided by the gain Gy·Gm (≧1) of a closed loop due to a negative feedback operation. If the analog feedback predistorter of
However, due to feedback characteristics, the conventional analog feedback distorter has a narrow operating band and operates unstably, resulting in a high possibility of oscillation.
The present invention provides a digital feedback linearizing apparatus and method to linearize a PA using a digital signal process (DSP) and a feedback technology, in which a predistorted signal required for linearization is generated by adding an input signal input through a predetermined path to an inverse distortion component corresponding to a distortion component of a PA and in which a linearly amplified output signal is obtained by passing the predistorted signal through the PA, so that linearity of the PA is effectively improved.
The present invention also provides a digital feedback linearizing apparatus and method, which generates the optimal predistorted signal for an input signal by obtaining an inverse distortion component corresponding to the amplitude of the input signal from a previously formed and stored lookup table.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital feedback linearizing apparatus to linearize a power amplifier used in a mobile communication base station, the digital feedback linearizing apparatus comprising a power amplifier input/output signal subtracting means, an inverse distorted feedback signal extracting means, and a signal adding means. The power amplifier input/output signal subtracting means generates a difference between an input signal and an output signal of the power amplifier. The inverse distorted feedback signal extracting means extracts an inverse distorted feedback signal (e(t)) corresponding to an input signal (x(t)) input to the digital feedback linearizing apparatus through a predetermined path based on the output signal of the power amplifier input/output signal subtracting means and the input signal (x(t)). The signal adding means generates a predistorted signal (u(t)) input to the power amplifier by adding the inverse distorted feedback signal (e(t)) to the input signal (x(t)). The power amplifier linearizes the power amplifier using the predistorted signal (u(t)) as its input signal.
Preferably, the inverse distorted feedback signal extracting means comprises a look-up table composed of signal values that are quantized corresponding to the amplitude of the input signal (x(t)), which gradually increases by a predetermined unit.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital feedback linearizing apparatus to linearize a power amplifier used in a mobile communication base station, the digital feedback linearizing apparatus comprising a look-up table, a feedback output reference signal selecting means, and a signal adding means. The look-up table is composed of signal values that are quantized corresponding to the amplitude of the absolute value of an input signal (x(t)) input to the digital feedback linearizing apparatus. The feedback output reference signal selecting means selects a feedback output reference signal (yr(t)) relating to an output signal fed back from the power amplifier from the look-up table. The signal adding means generates an error signal (xe(t)) input to the power amplifier by adding the feedback output reference signal (yr(t)) to the input signal (x(t)). The power amplifier linearizes the power amplifier using the error signal (xe(t)) as its input signal.
Preferably, when the gain of the power amplifier is A, a distortion component caused by the power amplifier is d(t), a degree of offset caused by feedback is 1/K, and the output signal of the power amplifier is y(t), the following equation is established:
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital feedback linearizing method implemented by a linearizing apparatus to linearize a power amplifier used in a mobile communication base station. The digital feedback linearizing method comprises (a) generating a difference between an input signal and an output signal of the power amplifier, (b) extracting an inverse distorted feedback signal (e(t)) based on the difference generated in step (a) and an absolute value of an input signal (x(t)) input to the linearizing apparatus through a predetermined path, (c) generating a predistorted signal (u(t)) input to the power amplifier by adding the inverse distorted feedback signal (e(t)) to the input signal (x(t)), and (d) linearizing the power amplifier using the predistorted signal (u(t)) as an input signal of the power amplifier.
Preferably, step (b) comprises structuring the look-up table composed of signal values that are quantized corresponding to the amplitude of the input signal (x(t)), which gradually increases by a predetermined unit, and extracting the inverse distorted feedback signal (e(t)) from the look-up table.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital feedback linearizing method implemented by a linearizing apparatus to linearize a power amplifier used in a mobile communication base station. The digital feedback linearizing method comprises structuring a look-up table composed of signal values quantized corresponding to the amplitude of an absolute value of an input signal (x(t)) input to the linearizing apparatus, selecting a feedback output reference signal (yr(t)) relating to an output signal fed back from the power amplifier from the look-up table, generating an error signal (xe(t)) input to the power amplifier by adding the feedback output reference signal (yr(t)) to the input signal (x(t)), and linearizing the power amplifier by using the error signal (xe(t)) as an input signal of the power amplifier.
The above and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail an exemplary embodiment thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
The present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of the invention are shown. Throughout the drawings, like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements.
Referring to
As shown in
Referring to
In the embodiment of the present invention shown in
Equation 6 is obtained by assuming that A>>K in Equation 5.
Operations of the digital feedback linearizing apparatuses 100 and 200 according to the embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to
The operating principle of the digital feedback linearizing apparatus 100 to linearize the PA 10 is similar to, but different from, that of the analog feedback predistorter described with reference to
The use of the look-up table 114 makes it possible to enlarge the operation range of the PA 10 and removes a possibility of oscillation of the PA 10. Thus, the digital feedback linearizing apparatus 100 to linearize the PA 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention has the same advantages as those of conventional digital predistorters, such as superior linearity, low price, size competitiveness, compatibility with base station digital parts, wide operating band, stability, and the like and, has a high distortion offset error allowance, which is a superior advantage of conventional analog predistorters.
The operating principle of the digital feedback linearizing apparatus 200 according to the second embodiment of the present invention shown in
In Equation 5, if the digital feedback linearizing apparatus 200 of
The performance of the digital feedback linearizing apparatus according to the present invention and a conventional digital predistorter will be compared with reference to
As can be seen from simulation results of
As described above, the digital feedback linearizing apparatus and method to linearize a PA uses a DSP and a feedback technology, in which a predistorted signal required for linearization is generated by adding an input signal input through a predetermined path to an inverse distortion component corresponding to a distortion component of the PA and in which a linearly amplified output signal is obtained by passing the predistorted signal through the PA, so that linearity of the PA is effectively improved, superior stability and wide operating band can be achieved, and price and size competitiveness can be improved.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2003-0070639 | Oct 2003 | KR | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5049832 | Cavers | Sep 1991 | A |
| 5745006 | Budnik et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
| 5770971 | McNicol | Jun 1998 | A |
| 6246286 | Persson | Jun 2001 | B1 |
| 6314142 | Perthold et al. | Nov 2001 | B1 |
| 6703897 | O'Flaherty et al. | Mar 2004 | B1 |
| 6756845 | Mashhour | Jun 2004 | B1 |
| 7023273 | Johnson et al. | Apr 2006 | B1 |
| 20020018531 | Ratto | Feb 2002 | A1 |
| 20020136324 | Nagasaka | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20020191710 | Jeckeln et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20030058959 | Rafie et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 1199814 | Apr 2002 | EP |
| 2 385 730 | Aug 2003 | GB |
| 1998-086858 | Dec 1998 | JP |
| 2002-038682 | May 2002 | JP |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20050077960 A1 | Apr 2005 | US |