Highly Nonlinear and Wide-Band mmWave Active Array OTA Linearization Using Neural Network

Feridoon Jalili*, Yufeng Zhang, Markku Hintsala, Ole Kiel Jensen, Qingyue Chen, Ming Shen, Gert Frølund Pedersen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
59 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper proposes a neural network (NN) based over-the-air (OTA) linearization technique for a highly nonlinear and wide-band mmWave active phased array (APA) transmitter and compares it with the conventional memory polynomial model (MPM)basedtechnique.TheproposedNNeffectivelylearnsthedistinctivenonlineardistortions,which may not easily fit to existing MPM solutions, and can therefore successfully cope with the challenges introduced by the high nonlinearity and wide bandwidth. The proposed technique has been evaluated using a state-of-the-art 4x4 APA operating in highly nonlinear regions at 28 GHz with a 100 MHz wide 3GPP base-station signal as input. Experimental results show the predistortion signal generated by the NN exhibits peak to average power ratio (PAPR) much lower than the one generated by MPM and consequently superior linearization performance in terms of adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) and error vector magnitude (EVM) for high nonlinearity cases. Using the proposed NN based linearization technique, an improvement of 5 dB ACLR and 7 % points in EVM are achieved, which demonstrates the promising potential of this technique for emerging broadband communication systems such as 5G/6G and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks.
Original languageEnglish
JournalIET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation
Volume16
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)62-77
Number of pages16
ISSN1751-8725
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge Jakob G. Brask, Kasper B. Olesen and Lauge F. Dyring, all of the University of Aalborg, Denmark, for providing technical and software support during OTA measurements.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Keywords

  • 5G mobile communication
  • active antenna arrays
  • learning (artificial intelligence)
  • linearisation techniques
  • millimetre wave amplifiers
  • millimetre wave antenna arrays
  • satellite communication

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