On Segmented Predistortion for Linearization of RF Power Amplifiers

Abstract

This paper presents a general survey of digital predistortion (DPD) techniques with segmentation. A comparison of global DPD with two segmented approaches namely Vector-Switched DPD and Decomposed Vector Rotation DPD is presented with the support of experimentation on a strongly non-linear 3 ways Doherty PA. It shows the interest of both segmented approaches in terms of linearization performance, complexity and ease of implementation compared to the global DPD. The paper starts with some mathematical generalities on interpolation and splines. It focuses on segmented models derived from Volterra series even if the presented principles can also be applied to neural networks.