A power
amplifier system and method for locating carrier frequencies across a
frequency band, identifying the modulation format of each carrier, and locating and suppressing undesired
intermodulation distortion (IMD) products generated by the power
amplifier. The
system includes an
amplifier for amplifying RF carrier signals in a main
signal path, a variable phase shifter and variable attenuator on a
feed forward path, and a tunable
receiver that digitizes a portion of the
frequency band to
baseband. The tunable
receiver includes a tunable
voltage controlled oscillator which provides an oscillating frequency to a mixer and is phase-locked to a highly stable reference oscillator. The mixer downconverts a desired RF based on the oscillating frequency to IF. A filter passes only a selected portion of the IF signals, and the filter has a
passband sufficient to discern both
narrowband and
wideband carriers and their associated IMD products. Based on the locations of the carrier frequencies, a
processing unit determines the IMD locations of the carrier frequencies, determines the IMD locations, and adjusts the variable phase shifter and variable attenuator on the
feed forward path until the IMD products in the main
signal path are suppressed below a desired threshold.