| 摘要 |
The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for assessing a capability, for example, linearity of an amplifier, such as that of a power amplifier including a radio frequency amplifier. In one embodiment, the method comprises defining a first figure of merit for a power amplifier based on a loss of linearity relative to a predefined linearity requirement for the power amplifier and/or defining a second figure of merit based on the first figure of merit and dependent upon a minimum frequency within a predefined frequency band for the power amplifier, characterizing the linearity thereof. In this manner, using a test setup, for digital mobile communication networks deploying one or more higher order modulation schemes with complex wireless transmission that results in non-constant envelope signals, linearity of power amplifiers in transceivers, such as a mobile station or a base station, may be sufficiently described. Moreover, the two defined figures of merit may be used to compare different amplifiers for these higher modulation schemes, making possible a comparison of different amplifiers independent of their implementation technology or design structure.
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