The class BD high-efficiency RF power amplifier

Class B and class D operation of the same RF power amplifier circuit is not normally possible because of constraints imposed by the tuned output circuit and DC power input circuit. The use of square-wave drive in a current switching class D RF amplifier circuit allows the amplifier to move gradually from current source to current switch operation. This amplifier, called class BD, has a linear transfer characteristic (drive envelope to output envelope) and an efficiency 1.23 times that of a class B RF amplifier with the same peak output. The addition of a resistive AC current path to ground in the DC power input circuit of the class BD RF amplifier allows operation with sinewave driving waveforms. While this lowers the efficiency at the peak output, it can raise it at lower outputs, making possible a factor of 1.57 improvement in efficiency in the amplification of signals with large peak-to-average ratios. The class BD RF amplifier may therefore be used as a broad-band replacement for a Doherty-type amplifier.     

A High-Gain Acquisition System With Very Large Input Range

A signal acquisition system is presented for the recording of small signals in the presence of low-frequency interference. In a conventional design, high-pass filters precede the input stage to remove the impeding signals. However, filters limit the recording bandwidth, can lead to long settling time after disturbance, and potentially valuable information about the interfering signal is removed. Also, the required large components are impractical for a fully integrated solution. In this paper, a flexible, low-cost, filterless system is proposed and demonstrated, which extends the available input range to accommodate interference instead of rejecting it. An integrated system using digitally controlled floating batteries to compensate for interference at the amplifier input is presented. A digital postprocessing algorithm suitable for integration is proposed and evaluated. Measured results of the acquisition front-end realized in 0.35 mum CMOS technology confirm a more than sevenfold extension of the original input range and the usable dynamic range. The system is further verified using electrocardiography as a typical biomedical application.     

BER Performance of OFDM Signals in Presence of Nonlinear Distortion due to SSPA

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signals typically exhibit large dynamic ranges due to superposition of a large number of subcarrier signals. As a result, such signals are highly vulnerable to distortion caused by high power amplifier (HPA) nonlinearity, leading to degradation in bit error rate (BER). In turn, the HPA operating point should be backed off to compensate for such degradation at the expense of the HPA efficiency. In this paper, the considered amplifier chain is a solid state power amplifier of Rapp’s model. We develop the factors contributing to BER degradation in terms of the input back-off (IBO) level assuming quadrature phase shift keying modulation. Consequently, the BER performance for such an amplifier model is developed as a function in IBO. Then, we show how this developed performance can be used to determine the required HPA operating point to achieve a certain required BER. Accordingly, an improvement in the amplifier efficiency is achieved. All developed analytic expressions are compared against simulation measurements, which show that good agreement exists.     

The effect of clock and carrier frequency offsets on theperformance of a direct-sequence spread-spectrum multiple-access system

It is widely known that the probability of symbol error in a direct-sequence spread-spectrum multiple-access network is dependent on the carrier and spreading code chip phases of the interfering terminals with respect to the signal of interest. As a result, for a given total interference power, the performance is worse for the case of one strong interferer when compared to the case of many weak interferers where the Gaussian assumption on the multiple-access interference holds. The author assumes a random-spreading code model and shows that if there is an offset on the carrier and spreading code frequencies of the interfering signals relative to the signal of interest, the above difference in performance between the cases of a set of balanced and a set of unbalanced interferers is drastically reduced. The result is that subject to such frequency offsets one may make the Gaussian assumption on the interference power regardless of whether it is composed of one strong interferer or many weak interferers of the same total power. In a network it may be desirable to actually force the offsets by putting a slight offset on the clock oscillators of the various transmitters. It is shown that to achieve a small variation of the noise variance, the spreading code and carrier offset frequencies should be greater than the symbol rate     

Prediction of Gain Expansion and Intermodulation Performance of Nonlinear Amplifiers

A mathematical model for the input‐output characteristic of an amplifier exhibiting gain expansion and weak and strong nonlinearities is presented. The model, basically a Fourier‐series function, can yield closed‐form series expressions for the amplitudes of the output components resulting from multisinusoidal input signals to the amplifier. The special case of an equal‐amplitude two‐tone input signal is considered in detail. The results show that unless the input signal can drive the amplifier into its nonlinear region, no gain expansion or minimum intermodulation performance can be achieved. For sufficiently large input amplitudes that can drive the amplifier into its nonlinear region, gain expansion and minimum intermodulation performance can be achieved. The input amplitudes at which these phenomena are observed are strongly dependent on the amplifier characteristics.     

New pump wavelength of 1540-nm band for long-wavelength-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (L-band EDFA)

A long-wavelength-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier (L-band EDFA) using a pump wavelength source of 1540-nm band has been extensively investigated from a small single channel input signal to high-power wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) signals. The small-signal gain coefficient of 1545-nm pumping among the 1540-nm band is 2.25 times higher compared to the conventional 1480-nm pumping. This improvement in gain coefficient is not limited by the pumping direction. The cause for this high coefficient is explained by analyzing forward- and backward-amplified spontaneous emission spectra. The gain spectra as a function of a pump wavelength suggest that a broadband pump source as well as a single wavelength pump can be used as a 1540-nm-band pump. In the experiment for high-power WDM signals, the power conversion efficiency for 256 WDM channel input is 48.5% with 1545-nm pumping. This result shows more than 20% improvement compared with the previous highest value for the L-band EDFA. Finally, the 1545-nm bidirectionally pumped EDFA is applied as a second stage amplifier in an in-line amplifier of an optical communication link with a 1480-nm pumped first stage EDFA, in which the input power of the second-stage EDFA is +2.2 dBm. The power conversion efficiency yields a 38% improvement without noise figure degradation compared with the case of 1480-nm pumping.     

Crosstalk between intensity-modulated wavelength-divisionmultiplexed signals in a semiconductor laser amplifier

The performance of a 1.5-μm Fabry-Perot type laser amplifier having two input signals at different wavelengths is experimentally studied. Crosstalk between the two signals at the output of the amplifier is measured. The crosstalk is strongly dependent on the input powers and on the signal gain, and is found to be very sensitive to the relative wavelengths of the input signals. The crosstalk can be either positive or negative, depending on the wavelength offsets. A theoretical model taking gain saturation and wavelength shift of the amplifier spectrum into account is shown to explain the experimental results well. Using this model, some general aspects on crosstalk in semiconductor laser amplifiers are discussed     

Multiuser soft interference canceler via iterative decoding for DSLapplications

This paper presents a method to mitigate interference on a transmission system by another system with an overlapping frequency band. The systems are uncoordinated so that they cannot be made to transmit in orthogonal coding space. The transmission environment is an interference channel rather than the multiaccess channel often considered in other multiuser detection problems, for instance at the base station of a code division multiple access wireless system. Using the fact that the inputs are all from discrete constellations, it is possible to use a multiuser maximum-likelihood (ML) detector to decode the signals from the system of interest with low probability of error. However, the ML detector often requires impractical computation. A soft linear canceler is instead used to reduce the interference with a small loss of bandwidth in the system of interest. The method has a much lower complexity than a full-blown ML detector, and the soft canceler performance is close to an ML detector. The method is demonstrated on a very-high-speed digital subscriber lines system with a home local area network interference. The system of interest is using a multicarrier modulation transmission scheme such as discrete multitone, while the interfering system transmits using quadrature amplitude modulation     

Linear time-variant transformations of generalized almost-cyclostationary signals .I. Theory and method

The problem of linear time-variant filtering is addressed in the fraction-of-time (FOT) probability framework. The adopted approach, which is an alternative to the classical stochastic one, provides a statistical characterization of the system in terms of time averages of functions of time rather than ensemble averages of stochastic processes. Thus, it is particularly useful when stochastic systems transform ergodic input signals into nonergodic output signals, as it happens with several channel models encountered in practice. The analysis is carried out with reference to the wide class of the generalized almost-cyclostationary signals, which includes, as,a special case, the class of almost-cyclostationary signals. In this paper, systems are classified as deterministic or random in the FOT probability framework. Moreover, the new concept of expectation in the FOT probability framework of the impulse-response function of a system is introduced. For the linear time-variant systems, the higher order system characterization in the time domain is provided in terms of the system temporal moment function, which is the kernel of the operator that transforms the additive sinewave components contained in the input lag product into the additive sinewave components contained in the output lag product. Moreover, the higher order characterization in the frequency domain is also provided, and input/output relationships are derived in terms of temporal and spectral moment and cumulant functions. Developments and examples of application of the theory introduced here are presented in part II of this two-part paper.     

Effects of baseband predistortion at the transmitter on the performance of a DEQPSK satellite modem

The paper presents the results of an extensive series of computer-simulation tests to determine the effects of bandlimiting, nonlinear distortion with and without predistortion, and adjacent channel interference (ACI), on the tolerance to additive white Gaussian noise of a digital satellite modem. The modem transmits a differentially encoded quaternary phase-shift keyed (DEQPSK) signal over a satellite link, where the high-power amplifier (HPA) at the earth-station transmitter may introduce AM—AM and AM—PM conversion effects into the DEQPSK signal, but the satellite transponder is linear. Four different bandwidths of the transmitted signal are tested, together with three different levels of output back-off in the HPA at the transmitter. The predistorter operates on the baseband signal at the input to the modulator in the transmitter and assumes a prior knowledge of the HPA characteristics. ACI can be introduced into the transmitted DEQPSK signal by the corresponding DEQPSK signals, which occupy the two immediately adjacent frequency bands. The latter signals are assumed to have the same transmission rate and bandwidths as the first signal. Various combinations of the different distortion and interference effects are studied, using an equivalent baseband model of the transmission system, and the arrangements selected are those achieving the most efficient use of bandwidth together with the best tolerance to additive white Gaussian noise. A surprisingly good performance is achieved.     

Amplitude-modulation detection in single-stage negative-feedback amplifiers due to interfering out-of-band signals

The electromagnetic-interference effects of out-of-band signals on negative-feedback amplifiers are investigated. It is assumed that the interfering signals picked up at the input of the amplifier are dominant. Due to the nonlinear behavior of the active devices in the amplifier, unwanted dc shifts and amplitude-modulation (AM) detection may occur. Describing these effects is usually done by using the Volterra series. Although providing good results when used for analysis, methods to use the Volterra series for the design process are not yet mature enough. A simple procedure for calculating AM detection is presented. An equivalent source at the input of the amplifier is introduced that accounts for the nonlinear effects. Because the characteristics of this source are computed as a function of design parameters, this procedure facilitates a synthesis approach for designing amplifiers with a lower susceptibility to AM detection. It is shown that the root locus of the amplifier transfer function has a large influence on the amount of AM detection and, therefore, on the electromagnetic compatibility. Measurements made on a single-stage negative-feedback amplifier support the presented procedure.     

Co-channel interference mitigation in the time-scale domain: theCIMTS algorithm

In many communication systems, the problem of co-channel interference is encountered when along with the signal of interest (SOI), and one or more interfering signals are present in a common receiver. The SOI and the interference are correlated, possess similar characteristics and power, and share the same region of support both in the time and frequency domains. In this paper, we present co-channel interference mitigation in the time-scale domain (CIMTS) algorithm (for MPSK signals) which estimates the SOI and the interfering signal from their superposition in the presence of additive noise. This method is inspired by the reconstruction of interference from the null space of the SOI in the time-scale domain. Once the null space of the SOI is determined, the interfering signal is reconstructed via a set of linear operations. Therefore, the SOI is estimated by a simple subtraction of the estimated interference from the observations     

新型多路数控增益放大器

介绍了一种新型多路数控增益放大器。该放大器具有8路模拟信号输入通道,采用3位数字信号控制通道位;每个通道均具有256级增益控制,采用8位数字信号控制放大倍数;输入信号采用绝对值处理电路,具备极性判别信号输出。采用多芯片微组装技术实现,体积小、重量轻,可用做小型微机处理电路的模拟接口芯片。简要介绍了基于该放大器的某设备控制与保护系统的应用示例。     

Performance analysis for impulse radio and direct-sequence impulse radio in narrowband interference

The impact of narrowband interference (NBI) on two ultra wideband (UWB) systems is analyzed. The two systems are impulse radio (IR) and a variation of it, termed direct-sequence IR (DS-IR). The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the decision device of a correlation receiver is computed for both systems, assuming that the NBI is wide sense stationary and that the channel is frequency-selective. The SNR is expressed by means of a simple equation involving the signal and the interference spectrum. Next, a statistical model for the interference is introduced, considering the interference as the sum of a given number of sinusoidal signals with random powers and frequencies. The bit-error rate of IR and DS-IR is derived. The results are then specialized and compared with simulations in three case studies of practical interest, where the NBI is a single jammer with deterministic power and frequency, a multitone signal with random frequencies, or a grid of interfering signals with random powers.     

A Discrete‐Amplitude Pulse Width Modulation for a High‐Efficiency Linear Power Amplifier

A new discrete‐amplitude pulse width modulation (DAPWM) scheme for a high‐efficiency linear power amplifier is proposed. A radio frequency (RF) input signal is divided into an envelope and a phase modulated carrier. The low‐frequency envelope is modulated so that it can be represented by a pulse whose area is proportional to its amplitude. The modulated pulse has at least two different pulse amplitude levels in order that the duty ratios of the pulse are kept large for small input. Then, an RF pulse train is generated by mixing the modulated envelope with the phase modulated carrier. The RF pulse train is amplified by a switching‐mode power amplifier, and the original RF input signal is restored by a band pass filter. Because duty ratios of the RF pulse train are kept large in spite of a small input envelope, the DAPWM technique can reduce loss from harmonic components. Furthermore, it reduces filtering efforts required to suppress harmonic components. Simulations show that the overall efficiency of the pulsed power amplifier with DAPWM is about 60.3% for a mobile WiMax signal. This is approximately a 73% increase compared to a pulsed power amplifier with PWM.     

基于对数放大的弱光检测电路设计

针对弱光检测电路中的信号信噪比小,动态范围大的问题,提出一种基于对数放大器的检测电路;利用对数放大器AD8304,设计外围检测和放大电路,在光导模式下验证光电放大电路的检测性能。结果表明,光导模式下,输入光强和输出信号为线性关系,同时利用对数放大器和比例放大器结合可以有效的检测弱光信号,抑制噪声,压缩信号带宽,提高了采集精度;信噪比明显提高,且灵敏度较高,输入和输出呈对数关系,可以有效的检测弱光信号。     

Crosstalk degradation caused by optical amplification in amultichannel FSK heterodyne system

The crosstalk degradation caused by an optical amplifier in a four-channel FSK (frequency-shift-keyed) heterodyne communication system is measured. A bit error rate (BER) floor of 3×10^-4 is observed when the channels are spaced by 200 MHz, FSK modulation at 45 Mb/s, and when the optical input signal is large enough such that the gain is compressed by 2 dB relative to its small-signal value. The receiver is substantially improved by reducing the optical power amplifier input. However, the sensitivity increases only to a maximum value beyond which it degrades as the optical power of the demodulated channel becomes small relative to the noise of the optical amplifier. The combined effect of the crosstalk and the amplifier noise yields an optimum sensitivity of 250 photons/b for BER=10^-9. This result is 5 dB poorer than the sensitivity obtained in the absence of an optical amplifier     

Adaptive cancellation of multiple interfering sinusoids

The adaptive sinusoidal interference canceller (ASIC) is a least-mean-square (LMS)-style algorithm for eliminating a sinewave of known frequency from an observed signal. The ASIC is generalised to cancel multiple interfering sinusoids. The performance of the algorithm, particularly when the interference frequencies are not exactly known, is analysed. It is also shown that the ASIC can provide a significant improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio     

Noise figure of phase-sensitive parametric amplifier using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with lossy Kerr media and noisy pump

The noise figure (NF) of a phase-sensitive parametric amplifier using a nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer (NMZI) with Kerr media is analyzed for amplitude-modulation signals. In the analysis, the distributed loss of the Kerr media and the excess noise of the pump light are taken into account. As for the distributed loss of the Kerr media, the quantum Langevin equation for the NMZI is derived and solved. The results elucidate a simple degradation factor in the NF representation of the amplifier. This factor implies that the NF can be less than the standard quantum limit (SQL) of 3 dB, even if the total loss of the Kerr media exceeds 3 dB. As for the excess noise of the pump light, the semi-classical small signal analysis is utilized. The results clearly indicate that the signal-to-noise ratio of the pump light must be four times higher than that of the input signal in order to realize a low-noise optical amplifier under the SQL of 3 dB.     

CDMA downlink interference suppression using I/Q projection

Interference suppression at the receiver can be used to improve performance and capacity in the downlink of direct-sequence code-division multiple-access systems. In this paper, an interference suppression technique is developed which uses partial knowledge of spreading sequences to cancel a group of interfering signals. Specifically, knowledge of a complex scrambling sequence is used to project the desired signal away from the interference in the in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) complex plane. A maximum likelihood receiver formulation is used, treating both the desired signal and interference as being conditionally noncircular. A zero-forcing equalization approach is used to preserve orthogonality between signals from the same base station. The development of the technique is based on the assumption that the group of signals corresponds to another base station that does not transmit the signal of interest. However, the technique is also applied to the path diversity scenario (dispersion, soft handoff, transmit delay diversity), in which the group of interfering signals includes a desired signal component. The approach, referred to as I/Q projection, provides significant gains when performance is interference limited.