198 results about "Linearizer" patented technology

A transceiver architecture for wireless base stations wherein a broadband radio frequency signal is carried between at least one tower-mounted unit and a ground-based unit via optical fibers, or other non-distortive media, in either digital or analog format. Each tower-mounted unit (for both reception and transmission) has an antenna, analog amplifier and an electro-optical converter. The ground unit has ultrafast data converters and digital frequency translators, as well as signal linearizers, to compensate for nonlinear distortion in the amplifiers and optical links in both directions. In one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the digital data converters, frequency translators, and linearizers includes superconducting elements mounted on a cryocooler.

A predistortion linearizer for predistorting a radiofrequency (RF) signal includes a first third-order predistortion linearizer having an input for receiving the RF signal, and a second third-order predistortion linearizer connected in cascade with the first linearizer, whereby fifth order nonlinearities are introduced into a cascaded, predistorted RF output signal. Cascading additional third-order linearizers similarly provides higher-order linearizers.

The present invention is a computationally-efficient compensator for removing nonlinear distortion. The compensator operates in a digital post-compensation configuration for linearization of devices or systems such as analog-to-digital converters and RF receiver electronics. The compensator also operates in a digital pre-compensation configuration for linearization of devices or systems such as digital-to-analog converters, RF power amplifiers, and RF transmitter electronics. The compensator effectively removes nonlinear distortion in these systems in a computationally efficient hardware or software implementation by using one or more factored multi-rate Volterra filters. Volterra filters are efficiently factored into parallel FIR filters and only the filters with energy above a prescribed threshold are actually implemented, which significantly reduces the complexity while still providing accurate results. For extremely wideband applications, the multi-rate Volterra filters are implemented in a demultiplexed polyphase configuration which performs the filtering in parallel at a significantly reduced data rate. The compensator is calibrated with an algorithm that iteratively subtracts an error signal to converge to an effective compensation signal. The algorithm is repeated for a multiplicity of calibration signals, and the results are used with harmonic probing to accurately estimate the Volterra filter kernels. The compensator improves linearization processing performance while significantly reducing the computational complexity compared to a traditional nonlinear compensator.

An amplifier circuit responsive to a power mode signal improves efficiency at low power levels without compromising efficiency at high power levels. At low power levels, high impedance is presented with suitable adjustment in the phase of the signal. Also, providing for predistortion linearization improves high power efficiency and switching the predistortion linearizer OFF at low power levels contributes little more than a small insertion loss. The power amplifier also uses a bias circuit incorporating a dual harmonic resonance filter to provide high impedance at a fundamental frequency and low impedance at a second harmonic. These properties are of particularly advantageous since amplifiers in cell-phones are used in low power modes most of the time although they are designed to be most efficient at primarily the highest power levels.

A linearizer reduces nonlinear intermodulation distortion in radio frequency and microwave systems by first directly generating in-phase and quadrature nonlinear intermodulation products of the system input. Controllable amounts of each phase are then added back into the system such that the vector sum of nonlinear intermodulation products at the output is reduced or eliminated by destructive interference, while the fundamentals are substantially unaffected. The quadrature distorted signals are generated with two lightly-biased and thus overdriven differential pairs having gain-determining degeneration impedances that are in quadrature with each other. The amount of each quadrature phase summed to the output is controlled with electronically tunable four-quadrant variable attenuators. The quadrature phasing enables rapidly convergent tuning to minimize distortion using conventional scalar spectral analysis. The advantages of a linearizer using rectangular vector coordinate system are significant.

In various embodiments, a dynamic range converter includes a first color space converter to convert a source color space of a source video having a source dynamic range to nonlinear color space signals. A linearizer configured converts the nonlinear color space signals to linearized color space signals having a mastering dynamic range via a piecewise linear interpolation of a transfer function. A color volume transformer applies dynamic color transform metadata associated with the source video to generate master adjusted color space signals from the linearized color space signals. A delinearizer converts the master adjusted color space signals to nonlinearized color space signals via a piecewise linear interpolation of an inverse transfer function in accordance with a display dynamic range. A second color space converter converts the nonlinearized color space signals to display domain signals. Other embodiments are disclosed.

An active predistorting linearizer with agile bypass circuit for safe mode operation is used in conjunction with an amplifier. This linearizer comprises a controllable input variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit supplied with the input signal to attenuate and amplify the input signal. A predistorter includes a controllable phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting path supplied with the attenuated and amplified input signal to distort the latter signal and produce a predistorted output signal. A controllable output variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit is supplied with the predistorted output signal to attenuate and amplify this predistorted output signal before supplying it to the power amplifier. A phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting controller is connected to the controllable input variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit, the controllable phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting path, and the controllable output variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit. Finally, a bypass extends in parallel with the series circuit including the serially interconnected input variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit, controllable phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting path, and output variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit. This bypass defines a bypass circuit established in response to a fault condition in the series circuit to bypass the faulty series circuit.

A transceiver architecture for wireless base stations wherein a broadband radio frequency signal is carried between at least one tower-mounted unit and a ground-based unit via optical fibers, or other non-distortive media, in either digital or analog format. Each tower-mounted unit (for both reception and transmission) has an antenna, analog amplifier and an electro-optical converter. The ground unit has ultrafast data converters and digital frequency translators, as well as signal linearizers, to compensate for nonlinear distortion in the amplifiers and optical links in both directions. In one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the digital data converters, frequency translators, and linearizers includes superconducting elements mounted on a cryocooler.

Provided are, among other things, systems, apparatuses, methods and techniques for converting a discrete-time quantized signal into a continuous-time, continuously variable signal. An exemplary converter preferably includes: (1) multiple oversampling converters, each processing a different frequency band, operated in parallel; (2) multirate (i.e., polyphase) delta-sigma modulators (preferably second-order or higher); (3) multi-bit quantizers; (4) multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters, such as resistor ladder networks or current source networks; (5) adaptive nonlinear, bit-mapping to compensate for mismatches in the multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters (e.g., by mimicking such mismatches and then shifting the resulting noise to a frequently range where it will be filtered out by a corresponding bandpass (reconstruction) filter); (6) multi-band (e.g., programmable noise-transfer-function response) bandpass delta-sigma modulators; and / or (7) a digital pre-distortion linearizer (DPL) for canceling noise and distortion introduced by an analog signal bandpass (reconstruction) filter bank.

A linearizer and method. In a most general embodiment, the inventive linearizer includes a characterizer coupled to an input to and an output from said circuit for generating a set of coefficients and a predistortion engine responsive to said coefficients for predistorting a signal input to said circuit such that said circuit generates a linearized output in response thereto. In a specific application, the circuit is a power amplifier into which a series of pulses are sent during an linearizer initialization mode of operation. In a specific implementation, the characterizer analyzes finite impulse responses of the amplifier in- response to the initialization pulses and calculates the coefficients for the feedback compensation filter in response thereto. In the preferred embodiment, the impulse responses are averaged with respect to a threshold to provide combined responses. In the illustrative embodiment, the combined responses are Fast Fourier Transformed, reciprocated and then inverse transformed. The data during normal operation is fed back to the data capture, corrected for distortion in the feedback path from the output of the amplifier, converted to basedband, synchronized and used to provide the coefficients for the predistortion linearization engine. As a result, in the best mode, each of the coefficients used in the predistortion linearization engine can be computed by solving the matrix equation HW=S for W, where W is a vector of the weights, S is a vector of predistortion linearization engine outputs, and H is a matrix of PA return path inputs as taught herein.

Techniques to linearly (in dB) adjust the gains of variable gain elements (i.e., variable gain amplifiers or VGAs) in a receiver or transmitter. An input control signal is provided to a conditioning circuit that conditions the control signal to achieve various signal characteristics. The input control signal is limited to within a particular range of values, temperature compensated, scaled (or normalized) to the supply voltages, shifted with an offset, or manipulated in other fashions. The conditioned signal is then provided to an input stage of a linearizer that generates a set of exponentially related signals. This is achieved using, for example, a differential amplifier in which the conditioned control signal is applied to the inputs of the differential amplifier and the collector currents from the differential amplifier comprises the exponentially related signals. An output stage within the linearizer receives the exponentially related signals and, in response, generates a gain control signal. By approximately matching the output stage to a gain stage of the variable gain element and by using the gain control signal generated by output stage, the gain transfer function of the VGA approximates that of the exponentially related signals.

Apparatus and methods configure digital predistortion linearizers for power amplification of bandlimited signals using non-linear amplifiers. The predistorter is configured to achieve both crest factor reduction (CFR) and predistortion for linearization. One embodiment advantageously reduces processing requirements conventionally associated with CFR by considering only the in-band component, that is, the information bearing component, of the desired signal to be reproduced for those cases in which the mitigation of in-band error vector magnitude (EVM) is preferred over the reduction of spurious out-of-band emissions.

A linearizer reduces nonlinear intermodulation distortion in radio frequency and microwave systems by first directly generating in-phase and quadrature nonlinear intermodulation products of the system input. Controllable amounts of each phase are then added back into the system such that the vector sum of nonlinear intermodulation products at the output is reduced or eliminated by destructive interference, while the fundamentals are substantially unaffected. The quadrature distorted signals are generated with two lightly-biased and thus overdriven differential pairs having gain-determining degeneration impedances that are in quadrature with each other The amount of each quadrature phase summed to the output is controlled with electronically tunable four-quadrant variable attenuators. The quadrature phasing enables rapidly convergent tuning to minimize distortion using conventional scalar spectral analysis. The advantages of a linearizer using rectangular vector coordinate system are significant.

The present invention provides an advanced adaptive predistortion linearization technique to dramatically reduce nonlinear distortion in power amplifiers over a very wide instantaneous bandwidth (up to 2 GHz) and over a wide range of amplifier types, input frequencies, signal types, amplitudes, temperature, and other environmental and signal conditions. In an embodiment of the invention, the predistortion linearization circuitry comprises (1) a higher-order polynomial model of an amplifier's gain and phase characteristics—higher than a third-order polynomial model; (2) an adaptive calibration technique; and (3) a heuristic calibration technique. The higher-order polynomial model is generated by introducing, for example, a plurality of multi-tone test signals with varying center frequency and spacing into the power amplifier. From the power amplifier's corresponding output, the nonlinearities are modeled by employing a higher-order curve fit to capture the irregularities in the nonlinear transfer function. Different distortion transfer functions can be implemented for different operating conditions. The adaptive calibration technique is based on a feedback analysis technique, which updates the applicable distortion transfer function by analyzing the error signal between the introduced input signal and the output signal in real-time. The heuristic calibration technique implements different distortion transfer functions based on historical operating conditions and optimal configurations of the power amplifier.

A system for converting a collection of data to a structured, printable and navigable document includes: an analyzer and a layout unit. The analyzer is coupled to receive a data collection source such as a web page associated with a wiki and other user parameters, and generates a representation of content associated with the data collection source. The output of the analyzer is coupled to an input of the layout unit to provide the representation of content. The layout unit is also coupled to receive a style sheet or other user preferences. The linearizer of the layout unit retrieves the necessary content using the representation of content. The retrieved content is then formatted by the layout selector of the layout unit to generate a paginated document and metadata. This output can then be printed on any conventional printer or manipulated and interacted with using applications or a web browser.

The present invention is an improved linearizer that implements more complex transfer functions to provide the necessary linearization performance with a reasonable amount of signal processing resources. Particularly, the linearizer operates on an analog-to-digital converter and comprises a distortion compensator and one or more factored Volterra compensators, which may include a second-order factored Volterra compensator, a third-order factored Volterra compensator, and additional higher-order factored Volterra compensators. Inclusion of factored Volterra distortion compensators improves linearization processing performance while significantly reducing the computational complexity compared to a traditional Volterra-based compensator.

A transceiver architecture for wireless base stations wherein a broadband radio frequency signal is carried between at least one tower-mounted unit and a ground-based unit via optical fibers, or other non-distortive media, in either digital or analog format. Each tower-mounted unit (for both reception and transmission) has an antenna, analog amplifier and an electro-optical converter. The ground unit has ultrafast data converters and digital frequency translators, as well as signal linearizers, to compensate for nonlinear distortion in the amplifiers and optical links in both directions. In one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the digital data converters, frequency translators, and linearizers includes superconducting elements mounted on a cryocooler.

First, a digital section constituting a linearizer is activated. Then, a feedback loop for updating a distortion compensation coefficient is opened. Then, the analog section on the antenna side is activated from an ADC, including a PA, etc., or a DAC. Then, both the ATT value of an ATT installed in a feedback route for updating the distortion compensation coefficient and the signal delay amount of a signal delay unit are adjusted to make a state such that the distortion compensation coefficient can be accurately updated. Then, the feedback loop is closed, a distortion compensation table having the distortion compensation coefficient as an entry is generated and after the generation is completed, the operation shifts to the normal operation.

A transceiver architecture for wireless base stations wherein a broadband radio frequency signal is carried between at least one tower-mounted unit and a ground-based unit via optical fibers, or other non-distortive media, in either digital or analog format. Each tower-mounted unit (for both reception and transmission) has an antenna, analog amplifier and an electro-optical converter. The ground unit has ultrafast data converters and digital frequency translators, as well as signal linearizers, to compensate for nonlinear distortion in the amplifiers and optical links in both directions. In one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the digital data converters, frequency translators, and linearizers includes superconducting elements mounted on a cryocooler.

An envelope tracking power transmitter includes an envelope amplifier, a common-gate power modulation linearizer and a power amplifier. The envelope amplifier may receive a first envelope voltage to generate a power supply voltage that is amplified in proportion to change of the first envelope voltage. The common-gate power modulation linearizer may receive a second envelope voltage to amplify the second envelope voltage according to change of the second envelop voltage. The power amplifier may receive a first output of the envelope amplifier as a power supply voltage and a drain bias voltage, may receive a second output of the common-gate power modulation linearizer as a common gate bias voltage, and may amplify a radio frequency (RF) input signal to provide a RF output signal by maintaining an output capacitance according to an envelope of the RF input signal.

Provided are, among other things, systems, apparatuses, methods and techniques for converting a discrete-time quantized signal into a continuous-time, continuously variable signal. An exemplary converter preferably includes: (1) multiple oversampling converters, each processing a different frequency band, operated in parallel; (2) multirate (i.e., polyphase) delta-sigma modulators (preferably second-order or higher); (3) multi-bit quantizers; (4) multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters, such as resistor ladder networks or current source networks; (5) adaptive nonlinear, bit-mapping to compensate for mismatches in the multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters (e.g., by mimicking such mismatches and then shifting the resulting noise to a frequently range where it will be filtered out by a corresponding bandpass (reconstruction) filter); (6) multi-band (e.g., programmable noise-transfer-function response) bandpass delta-sigma modulators; and / or (7) a digital pre-distortion linearizer (DPL) for canceling noise and distortion introduced by an analog signal bandpass (reconstruction) filter bank.

A gain adjuster and a phase adjuster of a distortion generation path are set so that an extracted distortion component becomes small, the extracted component is compared with a reference value. When an upper-frequency distortion component of a pilot signal is larger than the reference value, the gain and phase of a frequency characteristic compensator of the distortion generation path are controlled so that the upper-frequency distortion component of the pilot signal becomes smaller than a value preset in the controller. When a lower-frequency distortion component of the pilot signal is larger than a reference value, the gain and phase of the frequency characteristic compensator of the distortion generation path are controlled so that the lower-frequency distortion component of the pilot signal becomes smaller than a value preset in the controller.

An amplifier circuit responsive to a power mode signal improves efficiency at low power levels without compromising efficiency at high power levels. At low power levels, high impedance is presented with suitable adjustment in the phase of the signal. Also, providing for predistortion linearization improves high power efficiency and switching the predistortion linearizer OFF at low power levels contributes little more than a small insertion loss. The power amplifier also uses a bias circuit incorporating a dual harmonic resonance filter to provide high impedance at a fundamental frequency and low impedance at a second harmonic. These properties are of particularly advantageous since amplifiers in cell-phones are used in low power modes most of the time although they are designed to be most efficient at primarily the highest power levels.

Provided are, among other things, systems, apparatuses, methods and techniques for converting a discrete-time quantized signal into a continuous-time, continuously variable signal. An exemplary converter preferably includes: (1) multiple oversampling converters, each processing a different frequency band, operated in parallel; (2) multirate (i.e., polyphase) delta-sigma modulators (preferably second-order or higher); (3) multi-bit quantizers; (4) multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters, such as resistor ladder networks or current source networks; (5) adaptive non-linear, bit-mapping to compensate for mismatches in the multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters (e.g., by mimicking such mismatches and then shifting the resulting noise to a frequently range where it will be filtered out by a corresponding bandpass (reconstruction) filter); (6) multi-band (e.g., programmable noise-transfer-function response) bandpass delta-sigma modulators; and / or (7) a digital pre-distortion linearizer (DPL) for canceling noise and distortion introduced by an analog signal bandpass (reconstruction) filter bank.

Provided are, among other things, systems, apparatuses, methods and techniques for converting a discrete-time quantized signal into a continuous-time, continuously variable signal. An exemplary converter preferably includes: (1) multiple oversampling converters, each processing a different frequency band, operated in parallel; (2) multirate (i.e., polyphase) delta-sigma modulators (preferably second-order or higher); (3) multi-bit quantizers; (4) multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters, such as resistor ladder networks or current source networks; (5) adaptive nonlinear, bit-mapping to compensate for mismatches in the multi-bit-to-variable-level signal converters (e.g., by mimicking such mismatches and then shifting the resulting noise to a frequently range where it will be filtered out by a corresponding bandpass (reconstruction) filter); (6) multi-band (e.g., programmable noise-transfer-function response) bandpass delta-sigma modulators; and / or (7) a digital pre-distortion linearizer (DPL) for canceling noise and distortion introduced by an analog signal bandpass (reconstruction) filter bank.

In various embodiments, a dynamic range converter includes a plurality of circuits, including at least one configurable circuit that operates based on configuration data. The plurality of circuits include a first color space converter to convert a source color space of a source video having a source dynamic range to nonlinear color space signals. A linearizer configured converts the nonlinear color space signals to linearized color space signals having a mastering dynamic range via a piecewise linear interpolation of a transfer function. A color volume transformer applies dynamic color transform metadata associated with the source video to generate master adjusted color space signals from the linearized color space signals. A delinearizer converts the master adjusted color space signals to nonlinearized color space signals via a piecewise linear interpolation of an inverse transfer function in accordance with a display dynamic range. A second color space converter converts the nonlinearized color space signals to display domain signals. Other embodiments are disclosed.

An active predistorting linearizer with agile bypass circuit for safe mode operation is used in conjunction with an amplifier. This linearizer comprises a controllable input variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit supplied with the input signal to attenuate and amplify the input signal. A predistorter includes a controllable phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting path supplied with the attenuated and amplified input signal to distort the latter signal and produce a predistorted output signal. A controllable output variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit is supplied with the predistorted output signal to attenuate and amplify this predistorted output signal before supplying it to the power amplifier. A phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting controller is connected to the controllable input variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit, the controllable phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting path, and the controllable output variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit. Finally, a bypass extends in parallel with the series circuit including the serially interconnected input variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit, controllable phase-shifting and amplitude-adjusting path, and output variable-attenuator and drive-amplifier circuit. This bypass defines a bypass circuit established in response to a fault condition in the series circuit to bypass the faulty series circuit.

In one example system, the system comprises a linearizer module, a first upconverter module, a power amplifier module, a signal sampler module, and a downconverter module. The linearizer module may be configured to receive a first intermediate frequency signal and to adjust the first intermediate frequency signal based on a reference signal and a signal based on a second intermediate frequency signal. The first upconverter module may be configured to receive and up-convert a signal based on the adjusted first intermediate frequency signal to a radio frequency signal. The power amplifier module may be configured to receive and amplify a power of a signal based on the radio frequency signal. The signal sampler module may be configured to sample a signal based on the amplified radio frequency signal. The downconverter module may be configured to receive and down-convert a signal based on the sampled radio frequency signal to the second intermediate frequency signal.

A predistorter for the linearization of a power amplifier is provided. The predistorter can incorporate a field effect transistor (FET), which permits a design having low power consumption and broad band characteristics. The predistorter can be appropriate for integration with the power amplifier, unlike the conventional predistorters, because the subject predistorter does not significantly increase the size and complexity of the wireless system. In an embodiment, the subject predistorter can be coupled with a gate bias circuit of a power amplifier. When the predistorter is coupled with the gate bias of a power amplifier, the predistorter can function as linearizer as well as an adaptive gate bias circuit.

The invention belongs to the technical field of microwave linearization, and particularly relates to an amplitude and phase tunable type pre-distortion linearizer. According to the pre-distortion linearizer, based on the diode pre-distortion linearization working mechanism, by means of the vector superposition principle, pre-distortion nonlinear compensation with different amplitude and phase requirements is obtained through phase change, and the defect of traditional series-connection and parallel-connection transmission type simulation pre-distortion circuits that only pre-distortion signals suitable for solid-state power amplifiers can be generated and the defect of reflection type pre-distortion circuits that only pre-distortion signals suitable for microwave traveling-wave tube power amplifiers can be generated mostly are overcome; meanwhile, the capacity of control, over the amplitude expansion and phase expansion degrees of generated non-linear signals, of a microwave pre-distortion circuit is improved, and accurate strong-nonlinearity amplitude and phase compensation can be achieved.