Advanced Order Linearizer for Satellite Communications

The Ka-/Q-band satellite systems offer potential for transportable and mobile communications through the effective use of the wide bandwidths available while requiring that adequate linearity performance be maintained. In environments where size and power conservation is of high importance, power consumption and heat dissipation in the power amplifier (PA) must be minimized. However, it is widely accepted that linearity and efficiency are competing constraints. To address these challenges, MaXentric Technologies proposes a cost-effective linearizer, ALASTx (Adaptive LineArizer for Satellite Transmitters), for high efficiency satellite transmitters, capable of better than -50 dBc ACPR and<2.5 degrees /dB AM-PM using multi-tone signals with modulation bandwidths up to 52 MHz while operating the PA at peak efficiency (0dB backoff). To achieve high linearity while simultaneously maintaining high efficiency, adaptive digital pre-distortion (ADPD) will be used on Ka-/Q-band PA (30-31 GHz and 43.5-45.5 GHz). ADPD offers exceptional linearization capabilities for wide-band systems and, as compared to other schemes, has become very cost-efficient by utilizing a small set of additional resources in an already-existing signal processing unit used for signal generation. Consequently, the ability to characterize an amplifier's nonlinearities and minimize their impact through signal processing has become paramount to remaining competitive in the power amplifier market.