Test bed for characterization and predistortion of power amplifiers

A platform of high accuracy and reliability is crucial for power amplifier (PA) designers to assess the characteristics of the PA prototype, and for the digital predistorter engineers to validate their models and algorithms. Digital processing techniques for building a test bed of high performance for PA characterization and predistortion (PD) are discussed in this article. We also proposed a novel technique to characterize the frequency responses of the vector signal generator and vector signal analyzer independently without using any other instrument. The techniques described in this article are quite useful, especially for narrowband vector transmitters and receivers, to improve their performance. These techniques were experimentally evaluated, both for characterization and PD of a class‐F PA. Test results show that using such techniques can successfully build a test bed of high accuracy and wide bandwidth. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2013.