Evaluation and correction of time dependent amplifier non-linearity

Abstract

Both very high linearity and wide bandwidth are required by many new microwave and wireless systems. The linearity of power amplifiers degrades with increasing signal bandwidth. This paper shows that this degradation is related to time-dependent changes in amplifier transfer characteristics. A new method for evaluating an amplifier's wideband, dynamic, linearity is introduced, and strategies for improving the performance of both conventional and linearized amplifiers are discussed.