Validation of power amplifier nonlinear block models

Abstract

This paper presents a method of assessing the fidelity of nonlinear amplifier models for communications applications. The simulation predictions for BPSK and 16-QAM input signals are compared to measurements for a 20 GHz solid-state amplifier. It is shown that including a filter before a memoryless nonlinearity provides significantly improved model fidelity compared to the memoryless nonlinearity alone.