Patent ID: 6657492
Filing Date: 2003-12-02
Classification: H03F

Abstract:
A method for estimating a non-linear characteristic of an amplifier, comprising the steps of:(a) providing an input signal; (b) determining a reference signal based on the power of said input signal; (c) amplifying said input signal or a signal derived from said input signal using said amplifier to produce an amplified signal; (d) determining a measurement signal based on the power of said amplified signal; (e) associating respective samples of said measurement signal with respective samples of said reference signal; (f) determining a gain value of said amplifier for each sample from the respective sample of said reference signal and said associated sample of said measurement signal; (g) dividing an operating range of said amplifier into a plurality of power sections; (h) for each power section, averaging the gain values associated with samples of said reference signal which have a power which lies in said respective power section, in order to produce an averaged gain value; (i) for each power section, determining a measure of the deviation of the associated gain values from said averaged gain value; (j) rejecting an averaged gain value which has a measure of the deviation which exceeds a predetermined threshold; and (k) performing an interpolation using averaged gain values which have not been rejected in order to produce an estimation of said non-linear characteristics of said amplifier.