On the optimal characteristics of a memoryless power amplifier system

The performance of the piecewise linear limiter with multi-carrier input signal with arbitrary carrier amplitudes is analysed by using a simple, accurate and general approach. The limiter characteristic is expanded as an infinite Fourier series and convergent series expressions are obtained for the output carriers and intermodu-lation products. The special case of an input consisting of two equal-amplitude carriers is considered in detail and the results are found to be very accurate. This result will help in deciding whether the piecewise linear limiter will produce optimal or suboptimal results under specific traffic and criterion of optimality.