Quantifying Gain Compression in RF Power Amplifiers – An Improved Method for OFDM Signals

Power Consumption and Competitive Advantage Minimizing power consumption is one of the most critical design goals for portable wireless devices. Heat dissipation due to undesirable power requirements affects product reliability and product life. Most important, and one of the few things the average consumer understands, is the useable time of the device between battery charges. Longer operating time between charges can be a major advantage for manufacturers who achieve significantly lower power consumption than their competitors. However, the need for low power consumption must be traded off against other features and performance, such as the higher data rates needed in the latest wireless devices.