Simplifying Your 5G Base Transceiver Station Transmitter Line-Up, Design, and Evaluation

With wireless communication standards such as LTE and 5G, the emphasis on higher data rates and spectral efficiency has driven the wireless original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to adopt new transmission formats such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). However, these signals, with large fluctuations in their envelopes, are especially vulnerable to nonlinear power amplifier (PA) distortions due to their high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPR). With this high PAPR signal, a PA nonlinearity can produce substantial signal dis- tortions that increased bit error rates (BERs) and decreased signal-to-noise ratio as a result. This article reviews PAPRs, where they originate, how they can break down the RF components of the transmit line-up, and how to get rid of them or at least mitigate their effects on the signal chain.