A LUT-based scheme for LNA linearization in direct RF sampling receivers

Direct RF sampling receiver – a fully digital receiver architecture – undoubtedly becomes a favored choice for HF/VHF as this approach inherently bypasses the legacy nonlinearities caused by analog components. In DRF-RF and wideband multichannel in general, LNA is still an indispensable component to ensure the receiver’s sensitivity. However, with the presence of multiple channels, the total RF power often surpasses the linear threshold that LNA and the amplified signal become severely distorted. This paper proposed a method for mitigating the LNA distortion using the look-up table (LUT) approach. Specifically, our receiver is designed with two modes of operation. In training mode, a built-in signal circuit generates a training signal for extracting the LNA characteristic and eventually reconstructs the inverse LNA nonlinear model in the form of a LUT memory. During the receiving mode, a linearization circuit reverses the distortion impact by matching the RF power level with the inverse nonlinear model pre-stored in the LUT. The effectiveness of the proposed distortion compensation method first is evaluated by a MATLAB simulation with a multi-channel DRF-RF model. The simulation results show that the proposed approach significantly improved the SNDR for the channel of interest. Furthermore, the model has been practically verified, where the actual distorted signals are sampled from a commercial LNA (ZFL-500LN+) by a customized FPGA board. Results from measurements show an improvement of $\sim$7 dB for SNDR and 27% for EVM in a strong distortion scenario of QPSK modulation signal.