Augmented Real-Valued Time-Delay Neural Network for Compensation of Distortions and Impairments in Wireless Transmitters.

A digital predistorter, modeled by an augmented real-valued time-delay neural network (ARVTDNN), has been proposed and found suitable to mitigate the nonlinear distortions of the power amplifier (PA) along with modulator imperfections for a wideband direct-conversion transmitter. The input signal of the proposed ARVTDNN consists of Cartesian in-phase and quadrature phase ( I/Q ) components, as well as envelope-dependent terms. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed model is able to produce a richer basis function containing both the desired odd- and even-order terms, resulting in improved modeling capability and distortion mitigation. Its actual performance has been validated through extensive simulations and experiments. The results show that the compensation and hardware impairment mitigation capabilities of the ARVTDNN are superior to the existing state-of-the-art real-valued focused time-delay neural network (RVFTDNN) by 3-4 dB for the adjacent channel power ratio and by 2-3 dB in terms of the normalized mean square error. Other important features of the proposed model are its reduced complexity, in terms of the number of parameters and floating-point operations, and its improved numerical stability compared to the RVFTDNN model.

Forward Behavioral Modeling of a Three-Way Amplitude Modulator-Based Transmitter Using an Augmented Memory Polynomial.

Reconfigurable and multi-standard RF front-ends for wireless communication and sensor networks have gained importance as building blocks for the Internet of Things. Simpler and highly-efficient transmitter architectures, which can transmit better quality signals with reduced impairments, are an important step in this direction. In this regard, mixer-less transmitter architecture, namely, the three-way amplitude modulator-based transmitter, avoids the use of imperfect mixers and frequency up-converters, and their resulting distortions, leading to an improved signal quality. In this work, an augmented memory polynomial-based model for the behavioral modeling of such mixer-less transmitter architecture is proposed. Extensive simulations and measurements have been carried out in order to validate the accuracy of the proposed modeling strategy. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated using normalized mean square error (NMSE) for long-term evolution (LTE) signals. NMSE for a LTE signal of 1.4 MHz bandwidth with 100,000 samples for digital combining and analog combining are recorded as -36.41 dB and -36.9 dB, respectively. Similarly, for a 5 MHz signal the proposed models achieves -31.93 dB and -32.08 dB NMSE using digital and analog combining, respectively. For further validation of the proposed model, amplitude-to-amplitude (AM-AM), amplitude-to-phase (AM-PM), and the spectral response of the modeled and measured data are plotted, reasonably meeting the desired modeling criteria.

Blind Compensation of I/Q Impairments in Wireless Transceivers.

The majority of techniques that deal with the mitigation of in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance at the transmitter (pre-compensation) require long training sequences, reducing the throughput of the system. These techniques also require a feedback path, which adds more complexity and cost to the transmitter architecture. Blind estimation techniques are attractive for avoiding the use of long training sequences. In this paper, we propose a blind frequency-independent I/Q imbalance compensation method based on the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation of the imbalance parameters of a transceiver. A closed-form joint probability density function (PDF) for the imbalanced I and Q signals is derived and validated. ML estimation is then used to estimate the imbalance parameters using the derived joint PDF of the output I and Q signals. Various figures of merit have been used to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed approach using extensive computer simulations and measurements. Additionally, the bit error rate curves show the effectiveness of the proposed method in the presence of the wireless channel and Additive White Gaussian Noise. Real-world experimental results show an image rejection of greater than 30 dB as compared to the uncompensated system. This method has also been found to be robust in the presence of practical system impairments, such as time and phase delay mismatches.

Investigation of electrically active defects in InGaAs quantum wire intermediate-band solar cells using deep-level transient spectroscopy technique.

InGaAs quantum wire (QWr) intermediate-band solar cell-based nanostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy are studied. The electrical and interface properties of these solar cell devices, as determined by current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) techniques, were found to change with temperature over a wide range of 20-340 K. The electron and hole traps present in these devices have been investigated using deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). The DLTS results showed that the traps detected in the QWr-doped devices are directly or indirectly related to the insertion of the Si δ-layer used to dope the wires. In addition, in the QWr-doped devices, the decrease of the solar conversion efficiencies at low temperatures and the associated decrease of the integrated external quantum efficiency through InGaAs could be attributed to detected traps E1QWR_D, E2QWR_D, and E3QWR_D with activation energies of 0.0037, 0.0053, and 0.041 eV, respectively.

Electrical characterisation of deep level defects in Be-doped AlGaAs grown on (100) and (311)A GaAs substrates by MBE.

The growth of high mobility two-dimensional hole gases (2DHGs) using GaAs-GaAlAs heterostructures has been the subject of many investigations. However, despite many efforts hole mobilities in Be-doped structures grown on (100) GaAs substrate remained considerably lower than those obtained by growing on (311)A oriented surface using silicon as p-type dopant. In this study we will report on the properties of hole traps in a set of p-type Be-doped Al0.29Ga0.71As samples grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (100) and (311)A GaAs substrates using deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) technique. In addition, the effect of the level of Be-doping concentration on the hole deep traps is investigated. It was observed that with increasing the Be-doping concentration from 1 × 1016 to 1 × 1017 cm-3 the number of detected electrically active defects decreases for samples grown on (311)A substrate, whereas, it increases for (100) orientated samples. The DLTS measurements also reveal that the activation energies of traps detected in (311)A are lower than those in (100). From these findings it is expected that mobilities of 2DHGs in Be-doped GaAs-GaAlAs devices grown on (311)A should be higher than those on (100).