Automated multidimensional characterization of power amplifier for design and production

Designing, optimizing and producing modern power amplifiers (PA) requires new and fast RF (radio frequency) measurement techniques capable of characterizing its real behavior. PAs are a truly multidimensional device where many desired performance parameters are contradictory to each other. This is especially true for the generation of modern communication PAs that require high efficiency, high linearity as well as high bandwidth. This paper presents a software-defined measurement setup for fast and cost efficient multidimensional measurements based on highly accurate standard instruments and a PC. The test bed as well as the graphical user interface is presented along with a demonstration of its functionality. During tuning of tank networks, drain quiescent current, and bias conditions, 3-dimensional graphs can be selected for the most appropriate axes of trade-off parameters to display a true behavior of the PA under test subjected to real-world or close to real-world signals. The measurement system offers the possibility to monitor envelope-tracking dynamic power consumption up to 100 MHz plus the possibility to use high crest factors.