Power amplifier linearizer that compensates for long-time-constant memory effects and method therefor

The present invention relates generally to the field of digital communications. More specifically, the present invention relates to transmitter power amplifier linearization through the use of predistortion. A power amplifier linearizer () includes an on-chip portion () and an external controller (). The on-chip portion () implements two predistortion circuits () desirably configured as look-up tables. One predistortion circuit () is programmed by the external controller () to apply a hotter linearizing translation function () and the other predistortion circuit () is programmed by the external controller () to apply a colder linearizing translation function (). One or more temperature signals () are correlated with the temperatures experienced by a power amplifier () and drive a power amplifier thermal modeler () implemented in the controller (). As a result of running the thermal modeler (), the controller () generates an interpolation signal () that indicates how far to interpolate between the hotter and colder translation functions ().