Characterization and modeling of pulse drivers for switch mode power amplifier measurements

This paper addresses linearity issues of pulse drivers for the use in class-S power amplifiers. Nonlinear effects introduce unwanted signal components, however, pulse drivers are usually designed to be driven into saturation. Hence, it is a challenging but often necessary task to characterize and model these nonlinear effects especially in an early design stage. This paper addresses that issue by measurements carried out on a configurable pulse driver, namely Triquint's TGA4954-SL. It is demonstrated that characterization and modeling of a digital pulse generating system can be performed using a relatively short and generic excitation sequence.