A Multi-branch Linear Amplification with Nonlinear Components Technique

Abstract

Single carrier modulations with high order constellations or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulations can be employed to obtain spectrally efficient communications. However, such modulations lead to signals with large envelope variations, where the amplification is challenging and usually energy-inefficient. The linear amplification with nonlinear components (LINC) makes use of two efficient, nonlinear power amplifiers for an efficient amplification. In this work, we propose the multi-branch LINC (MB-LINC) technique, which allows the use of highly-efficient nonlinear amplifiers without increasing the nonlinear distortion effects, even if the amplifiers are not balanced.