Hybrid predistortion to compensate third- and fifth-order intermodulation of a 2 GHz power amplifier using cuber predistortion and second harmonics injection

A new circuit construction technique that actively utilises second harmonics injection (HI) to realise fifth-order predistortion (PD) for power amplifiers (PAs) with memoryless AM/AM and AM/PM conversions is proposed. Applying a combination of the proposed technique and cuber predistortion (CPD) to third-order distortion yields the simultaneous compensation of both third- and fifth-order intermodulation distortion (IM3 and IM5); capabilities are not possible with the conventional third-order PD approach. Since the proposed method can be implemented as a simple analogue circuit, it betters compactness and lowers cost. In order to derive the PA bias condition at which second HI works most effectively, a complex power series nonlinear model that allows both amplitude and phase nonlinearities to be dealt with simultaneously is used. To confirm the author's compensation theory, a 2 GHz band PA and a hybrid lineariser that employs second HI and CPD are fabricated and experiments are performed. About a 20 dB simultaneous reduction in IM3 and IM5 is achieved with the two-tone test. A W-CDMA one-carrier test is also conducted to verify the improvement in adjacent channel leakage power ratio compared with CPD only.