Unleashing UHF Nonlinear Measurements Using Active Load Pull and Waveform Engineering Techniques

The drive for more efficient and lower cost designs is increasing  for all wireless communications at all frequency ranges. As this trend relates to power amplifier design, an improvement in Power Added Efficiency (PAE) across a wider fractional band of operation can enable fewer components for multi-band designs. Existing tools have been sufficient to date, but often require multiple design cycles due to poor correlation between expected and actual results. For complex wireless radio formats, optimum efficiency is realized by operating devices in their nonlinear regions where the natural device distortion products can be represented by their harmonic components.In order to achieve the desired performance, next generation tools are needed to more accurately understand the higher order harmonics.

This paper provides an overview of some emerging UHF power amplifier markets and provides a discussion regarding the evolution of nonlinear measurements. A brief overview is provided on Mesuro’s MB series active load pull measurement solutions and how the Tektronix AWG7000 Series Arbitrary Waveform Generator and DSA8200 Series Sampling Oscilloscope enable a new approach to non-linear device characterization and amplifier development.