Hybrid Beamforming Transmitter Modeling for Millimeter-Wave MIMO Applications

Hybrid digital and analog beamforming is an emerging technique for high-data-rate communication at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies. Experimental evaluation of such techniques is challenging, time-consuming, and costly. This article presents a hardware-oriented modeling method for predicting the performance of an mm-wave hybrid beamforming transmitter. The proposed method considers the effect of active circuit nonlinearity as well as the coupling and mismatch in the antenna array. It also provides a comprehensive prediction of radiation patterns and far-field signal distortions. Furthermore, it predicts the antenna input active impedance, considering the effect of active circuit load-dependent characteristics. The method is experimentally verified by a 29-GHz beamforming subarray module comprising an analog beamforming integrated circuit (IC) and a 2 times 2 subarray microstrip patch antenna. The measurement results present good agreement with the predicted ones for a wide range of beam-steering angles. As a use case of the model, far-field nonlinear distortions for different antenna array configurations are studied. The demonstration shows that the variation of nonlinear distortion versus steering angle depends significantly on the array configuration and beam direction. Moreover, the results illustrate the importance of considering the joint operation of beamforming ICs, antenna array, and linearization in the design of mm-wave beamforming transmitters

Active Transmitter Antenna Array Modeling for MIMO Applications

The rapid growth of data traffic in mobile communications has attracted interests to the Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication systems at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies.\ua0 MIMO systems exploit active transmitter antenna arrays for higher energy efficiency and providing beamforming flexibility. The close integration of multiple PAs and antennas increases the transmitter analysis complexity. Moreover, due to the small antenna element spacing at mm-wave frequencies, isolators are too bulky and cannot be used. Therefore, including the effects of interactions between the antenna array and PAs is a significant aspect in the analysis of MIMO transmitters. For large active arrays, applying joint circuit and EM simulation tools for the analysis is a complicated and time-consuming task. In these occasions, behavioral models are the key to the fast and accurate evaluation of active transmitter antenna arrays.In this thesis, a technique for modeling the active transmitter antenna array performance is presented. The proposed model considers the effect of PAs nonlinearity as well as the coupling and mismatch in the antenna array. With this model, a comprehensive prediction of radiation pattern and signal distortions in the far-field is feasible. The model is experimentally verified by a mmWave active subarray antenna for a beam steering scenario and by performing over-the-air measurements. The measurement results effectively validate the modeling technique for a wide range of steering angles.\ua0\ua0 Furthermore, a linearity analysis is provided to predict transmitter performance in conjunction with beam-dependent digital predistortion (DPD) linearization. The study reveals the model potential in evaluating different DPD approaches as well as predicting the performance of linearized transmitters. The demonstration shows that the variation of nonlinear distortion versus steering angle depends significantly on the array configuration and beam direction.In summary, the proposed model allows for the prediction of the active transmitter antenna array performance in the early design stages with low computational effort. It can provide design guides for developing large-scale active arrays and can be employed for evaluating the DPD and transmitter linearity performance

Modeling Approaches for Active Antenna Transmitters

The rapid growth of data traffic in mobile communications has attracted interest to Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication systems at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies. MIMO systems exploit active antenna arrays transmitter configurations to obtain higher energy efficiency and beamforming flexibility. The analysis of transmitters in MIMO systems becomes complex due to the close integration of several antennas and power amplifiers (PAs) and the problems associated with heat dissipation. Therefore, the transmitter analysis requires efficient joint EM, circuit, and thermal simulations of its building blocks, i.e., the antenna array and PAs. Due to small physical spacing at mmWave, bulky isolators cannot be used to eliminate unwanted interactions between PA and antenna array. Therefore, the mismatch and mutual coupling in the antenna array directly affect PA output load and PA and transmitter performance. On the other hand, PAs are the primary source of nonlinearity, power consumption, and heat dissipation in transmitters. Therefore, it is crucial to include joint thermal and electrical behavior of PAs in analyzing active antenna transmitters. In this thesis, efficient techniques for modeling active antenna transmitters are presented. First, we propose a hardware-oriented transmitter model that considers PA load-dependent nonlinearity and the coupling, mismatch, and radiated field of the antenna array. The proposed model is equally accurate for any mismatch level that can happen at the PA output. This model can predict the transmitter radiation pattern and nonlinear signal distortions in the far-field. The model\u27s functionality is verified using a mmWave active subarray antenna module for a beam steering scenario and by performing the over-the-air measurements. The load-pull modeling idea was also applied to investigate the performance of a mmWave spatial power combiner module in the presence of critical coupling effects on combining performance. The second part of the thesis deals with thermal challenges in active antenna transmitters and PAs as the main source of heat dissipation. An efficient electrothermal modeling approach that considers the thermal behavior of PAs, including self-heating and thermal coupling between the IC hot spots, coupled with the electrical behavior of PA, is proposed. The thermal model has been employed to evaluate a PA DUT\u27s static and dynamic temperature-dependent performance in terms of linearity, gain, and efficiency. In summary, the proposed modeling approaches presented in this thesis provide efficient yet powerful tools for joint analysis of complex active antenna transmitters in MIMO systems, including sub-systems\u27 behavior and their interactions

Modeling and Compensation of Nonlinear Distortion in Multi-Antenna RF Transmitters

Multi-antenna systems are utilized as a way to increase spectral efficiency in wireless communications. In a transmitter, the use of several parallel transmit paths and antennas increases system complexity and cost. Cost-efficient solutions, which employ active antenna arrays and avoid expensive isolators, are therefore preferred. However, such solutions are vulnerable to crosstalk due to mutual coupling between the antennas, and impedance mismatches between amplifiers and antennas. Combined with the nonlinear behavior of the power amplifiers, these effects cause nonlinear distortion, which deteriorates the quality of the transmitted signals and can prevent the transmitter from meeting standard requirements and fulfilling spectrum regulations. Analysis, assessment and, if necessary, compensation of nonlinear distortion are therefore essential for the design of multi-antenna transmitters.In this thesis, a technique for modeling and predicting nonlinear distortion in multi-antenna transmitters is presented. With this technique, the output of every individual transmit path, as well as the radiated far-field of the transmitter can be predicted with low computational effort. The technique connects models of the individually characterized transmitter components. It can be used to investigate and compare the effects of different power amplifier and antenna array designs at early design stages without complicated and expensive measurements.Furthermore, a digital predistortion technique for compensating nonlinear distortion in multi-antenna transmitters is presented. Digital predistortion is commonly used in transmitters to compensate for undesired nonlinear hardware effects. The proposed solution combines a linear function block with dual-input predistorters. The complexity is reduced compared to existing techniques, which require highly complex multivariate predistorter functions. Finally, a technique for identifying multi-antenna transmitter models and predistorters from over-the-air measurements using only a small set of observation receivers is presented. Conventional techniques require a dedicated observation receiver in every transmitter path, or one or more observation receivers that are shared by several paths in a time-interleaved manner. With the proposed technique, each receiver is used to observe several transmitter paths simultaneously. Compared to conventional techniques, hardware cost and complexity can be reduced with this approach. In summary, the signal processing techniques presented in this thesis enable a simplified, low-cost design process of multi-antenna transmitters. The proposed algorithms allow for feasible, low-complexity implementations of both digital and analog hardware even for systems with many antennas, thereby facilitating the development of future generations of wireless communication systems

Modeling and Linearization of MIMO RF Transmitters

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology will continue to play a vital role in next-generation wireless systems, e.g., the fifth-generation wireless networks (5G). Large-scale antenna arrays (also called massive MIMO) seem to be the most promising physical layer solution for meeting the ever-growing demand for high spectral efficiency. Large-scale MIMO arrays are typically deployed with high integration and using low-cost components. Hence, they are prone to different hardware impairments such as crosstalk between the transmit antennas and power amplifier (PA) nonlinearities, which distort the transmitted signal. To avert the performance degradation due to these impairments, it is essential to have mechanisms for predicting the output of the MIMO arrays. Such prediction mechanisms are mandatory for performance evaluation and, more importantly, for the adoption of proper compensation techniques such as digital predistortion (DPD) schemes. This has stirred a considerable amount of interest among researchers to develop new hardware and signal processing solutions to address the requirements of large-scale MIMO systems. In the context of MIMO systems, one particular problem is that the hardware cost and complexity scale up with the increase of the size of the MIMO system. As a result, the MIMO systems tend to be implemented on a chip and are very compact. Reduction of the cost by reducing the bill of material is possible when several components are eliminated. The reuse of already existing hardware is an alternative solution. As a result, such systems are prone to excessive sources of distortion, such as crosstalk. Accordingly, crosstalk in MIMO systems in its simplest form can affect the DPD coefficient estimation scheme. In this thesis, the effect of crosstalk on two main DPD estimation techniques, know as direct learning algorithm (DLA) and indirect learning algorithm (ILA), is studied. The PA behavioral modeling and DPD scheme face several challenges that seek cost-efficient and flexible solutions too. These techniques require constant capture of the PA output feedback signal, which ultimately requires the implementation of a complete transmitter observation receiver (TOR) chain for the individual transmit path. In this thesis, a technique to reuse the receiver path of the MIMO TDD transceiver as a TOR is developed, which is based on over-the-air (OTA) measurements. With these techniques, individual PA behavioral modeling and DPD can be done by utilizing a few receivers of the MIMO TDD system. To use OTA measurements, an on-site antenna calibration scheme is developed to individually estimate the coupling between the transmitter and the receiver antennas. Furthermore, a digital predistortion technique for compensating the nonlinearity of several PAs in phased arrays is presented. The phased array can be a subset of massive MIMO systems, and it uses several antennas to steer the transmitted signal in a particular direction by appropriately assigning the magnitude and the phase of the transmitted signal from each antenna. The particular structure of phased arrays requires the linearization of several PAs with a single DPD. By increasing the number of RF branches and consequently increasing the number of PAs in the phased array, the linearization task becomes challenging. The DPD must be optimized to results in the best overall linear performance of the phased array in the field. The problem of optimized DPD for phased array has not been addressed appropriately in the literature. In this thesis, a DPD technique is developed based on an optimization problem to address the linearization of PAs with high variations. The technique continuously optimizes the DPD coefficients through several iterations considering the effect of each PA simultaneously. Therefore, it results in the best optimized DPD performance for several PAs. Extensive analysis, simulations, and measurement evaluation is carried out as a proof of concept. The different proposed techniques are compared with conventional approaches, and the results are presented. The techniques proposed in this thesis enable cost-efficient and flexible signal processing approaches to facilitate the development of future wireless communication systems