Effects of the combined RF impairments on the error vector magnitude according to transmitter architectures

Abstract

For generating quadrature signals, two signal components are needed. Radio frequency (RF) transmitters can be classified by the ways to generate quadrature signals. Therefore in-phase/quadrature I/Q, polar and out-phasing transmitter exists. In designing transmitters, error vector magnitude (EVM) is widely used as a simple indicator to estimate accuracy of signals. Transmitter mismatches and RF non-linearity of power amplifier (PA) are main factors affecting on the performance degradation. In this thesis when each transmitter sends quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals, the effects of the transmitter mismatches and RF non-linearity of PA on EVM are analyzed mathematically and verified by the simulation and measurements.