DPD (Digital Pre-Distortion) for RF Power Amplifier Test

The necessity for enhanced communication protocols that support wider bandwidths, higher frequencies, and increased power densities has led to stricter requirements for Power Amplifiers (PA), particularly in balancing linearity with efficiency. Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) techniques have emerged as a key solution to mitigate PA non-linearities and boost efficiency, gaining widespread application in WIFI 7 communications. DPD processes involve identifying amplifier non-linearities, processing these characteristics, and then applying corrective pre-distortion to the input signal to neutralize these effects. However, the significant computational demands of DPD algorithms make individual PA pre-distortion waveform computations in production testing both time-intensive and economically impractical. This paper introduces an innovative approach to DPD in production testing that significantly reduces test duration through the use of edge computing. By deploying advanced computing resources (ACS RTDI) for offloading complex, parallelizable matrix operations, our method substantially decreases overall testing time. The presentation will explore a variety of DPD techniques and suggest practical strategies for test program deployment, aiming to streamline the production testing process.