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Diode-based predistortion lineariser for power amplifiers

Article in Electronics Letters · February 2008

DOI: 10.1049/el:20082436 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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Diode-based predistortion lineariser for nonlinear arm and the pin diode Hewlett-Packard HPND-4005 (D1
power amplifiers and D2) is used for the lineariser’s linear arm.

S.C. Bera, R.V. Singh and V.K. Garg

The design, development and test results of a predistortion type linear-

iser based on Schottky and pin diodes are presented. The lineariser is
capable of providing different combinations of amplitude and phase
characteristic for use with different power amplifiers. Integrated with
a 60 W Ku-band travelling wave tube amplifier it improves the two-
tone third-order intermodulation distortion by 1.9 dB at 0 dB power
input back off (IBO) and 16 dB at 7 dB IBO.

Introduction: Diode based predistortion linearisers [1– 9] are suitable

for space applications owing to their compactness and lower power con-
sumption. Some reported diode based predistortion linearisers [1– 5] are
very simple and suitable for linearising the nonlinearity of solid-state
power amplifiers where amplitude and phase nonlinearity are not very
high. However, these linearisers suffer from input and output matching
over the entire operating power region and need isolators at both ports.
Some reported linearisers [6– 9] are capable of linearising high ampli-
tude and phase nonlinearity of the travelling wave tube amplifier
(TWTA). However, these linearisers are relatively complex. Moreover, Fig. 2 Photograph of lineariser
reported linearisers are very sensitive to temperature since diodes are
biased either with a nearly constant current bias [2, 3] or with a
nearly constant voltage bias [4, 5] condition. Test results: The fabricated lineariser has been characterised using
In this Letter we present a diode-based lineariser operating at Ku-band Agilent Technologies’ PNA series network analyser, E8363B. The
frequency. The proposed lineariser neither requires any buffer amplifier amplitude and phase characteristics of the lineariser at different bias con-
[3] to control the amplitude and phase characteristics nor requires any ditions are shown in Fig. 3. The bias current of the Schottky diode and
isolators at the input/output ports. The lineariser uses a Schottky pin diode varies by varying the respective bias resistors and keeping
diode and a pin diode using the optimum bias load-line technique to supply voltage constant equal to the optimum open circuit voltage to
achieve temperature invariant performance [10]. This lineariser is very ensure temperature invariant RF performance [10]. The Figure shows
versatile in characteristics, only selecting the bias currents of the that various combinations of amplitude and phase can be obtained just
diodes in combinations of amplitude and phase characteristic that can by changing the bias currents of the Schottky and pin diodes.
be achieved for different power amplifiers encountered in practice. Measurement over the temperature range 210 to þ608C shows that
the peak-to-peak amplitude variation remains within +0.5 dB and
Realisation: The schematic diagram of the proposed predistortion phase variation remains within +1.28 over the entire operating power
lineariser is shown in Fig. 1. To achieve different combinations of mag- level of 230 to 24 dBm.
nitude and phase characteristic, a voltage variable pin diode (D1 and D2)
attenuator circuit (labelled ‘linear arm’) is utilised in combination with a
distortion generator circuit (labelled ‘nonlinear arm’) using a Schottky
barrier diode (D3 and D4). These two arms are connected with a 3 dB
908 input power divider and a 3 dB in-phase output power combiner.
Owing to the inherent property of the 3 dB 908 hybrid structure, input
and output ports will be always perfectly matched for all values of the
diode resistance for matched pair diodes.

Fig. 3 Measured AM/AM and AM/PM characteristics of lineariser for

Fig. 1 Schematic of diode based lineariser different bias conditions

The lineariser has been developed at the communication satellite’s The performance of the lineariser is evaluated with a 60 W Ku-band
down-link frequency of 11.45 to 11.7 GHz. The photograph of the fab- TWTA. A post-amplifier in between the lineariser and the TWTA is used
ricated lineariser circuit is shown in Fig. 2. The MIC layout of the circuit to compensate the loss of the lineariser (nearly 11.5 dB corresponds to
is realised in a very compact size of 0.75
0.5 inch in a 25 mil-thick, the nominal power level of the TWTA) and to set the required input
two metallisation layer (Cr-Au) alumina substrate of 1r ¼ 9.9. A 3 dB power of the TWTA from the output of the lineariser. The tested
Lange coupler is used for both the linear and the nonlinear arms and AM/AM and AM/PM characteristic of the TWTA alone and of the
the input power divider. A 3 dB Wilkinson power combiner is used TWTA with the lineariser are shown in Fig. 4. This Figure shows that
for combining the output power of the linear and nonlinear arms. the gain compression of the linearised TWTA improved from 7.5 dB
Here, beam lead medium-barrier Schottky diodes of type MSS-40, to +1 dB and total phase shift improves from 288 to 108 (p-p) at
148-B10B of M/s Metalics (D3, D4 ) are used for the lineariser’s 0 dB input power back off (IBO).

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 17th January 2008 Vol. 44 No. 2

 # The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2008
22 August 2007
Electronics Letters online no: 20082436
doi: 10.1049/el:20082436
S.C. Bera, R.V. Singh and V.K. Garg (Space Applications Centre,
Indian Space Research Organization, Ahmedabad, India)
E-mail: [email protected]

References
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ELECTRONICS LETTERS 17th January 2008 Vol. 44 No. 2

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