Gaussian Pulse Characterization of RF Power Amplifiers

This work presents a new RF power amplifier characterization technique based on Gaussian pulse, which is shown to approximate the envelope of multicarrier signal with 0.5% error around peaks. The standard deviation pulses inversely proportional I/Q bandwidth. test accurately capture nonlinear memory effects that result in gain dispersion after peak reached. As an example, it amplitude and phase can vary up 2.3 dB 6° for 10-W 3.75-GHz GaN power-amplifier evaluation board, depending bandwidth level.