A Novel Baseband Generation Method for Modeling RF Power Amplifiers for Bit Error Rate Computations

In this article, we present a novel method for modeling radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers (PAs). The proposed method for baseband data generation introduced in this paper, enables us to specify operational power range and bandwidth criteria of the PA, yielding a generic power amplifier model, which includes both memory effects as well as non-linearity of the PA. Further, we show that, the modeling approach is useful for bit error rate (BER) computations with PA distortions for any digitally modulated signal. Estimated BER using the proposed PA model for the test case of QPSK and 16-QAM, shows a significant difference in BER at high input back-offs due to memory effects, compared to the conventional non-linear PA models.