PhD defense Thuy Pham Trong: Bandwidth-Scalable Neural Behavioral Modeling of Wideband RF Power Amplifiers
Télécom Paris, 19 place Marguerite Perey F-91120 Palaiseau [getting there], amphi 3 and in videoconferencing
Full title: Bandwidth-Scalable Neural Behavioral Modeling of Wideband RF Power Amplifiers: NARX Neural Networks and a Unified Figure of Merit
Jury
- Yves Louet, Professor, CentraleSupélec (Examiner)
- Myriam Ariaudo Professor, ENSEA (Reviewer)
- Juan-Mari Collantes, Professor, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU (Reviewer)
- Francois Rivet, Senior Lecturer, Université de Bordeaux (Examiner)
- Morgan Roger, Senior Lecturer, CentraleSupélec (Examiner)
- Patricia Desgreys, Professor, Télécom Paris (LTCI) (Thesis director)
- Dang-Kièn Germain Pham, Senior Lecturer, Télécom Paris (LTCI) (Co-supervisor)
- Reda Mohellebi, Research Engineer, Télécom Paris (LTCI) (Guest)
- Pierre Almairac, Engineer, NXP (Guest)
Abstract
Wideband RF power amplifiers (PAs) face a fundamental efficiency-linearity trade-off in which non-linearities and memory effects degrade in-band waveform fidelity and generate out-of-band spectral regrowth. To resolve this problem, accurate behavioral models serve as essential digital surrogates for the development of Digital Predistortion (DPD).
By characterizing complex memory effects and spectral regrowth, these models enable safe and systematic design evaluation without the risks of extensive hardware iterations. This thesis develops bandwidth-scalable neural behavioral modeling methods for wideband PAs, emphasizing accuracy, robustness under bandwidth variation, and implementation-relevant complexity. A structured recurrent formulation based on the nonlinear autoregressive neural network with exogenous inputs (NARXNN) is established as a favorable accuracy-complexity compromise relative to polynomial baselines
and representative neural network alternatives. To improve modeling fidelity in strongly nonlinear regimes, a piecewise NARXNN (PW-NARXNN) architecture is proposed by segmenting the operating space and training specialized NARXNN submodels ; on the reference dataset, PW-NARXNN improves NMSE to -39.2 dB with a moderate increase in parameters (666 compare to 377 of global NARXNN), and yields improved spectral fidelity. Bandwidth generalization is then investigated on a measured multi-band 5G-NR dataset spanning 20-100 MHz acquired on an LDMOS PA, using standard, interpolation, and extrapolation validation schemes to quantify robustness under bandwidth changes. Finally, a bandwidth-aware Figure of Merit (FoM) is introduced to unify comparison by combining mean accuracy, prediction stability, bandwidth sensitivity, and a logarithmic complexity penalty, providing a compact ranking and consistently identifying NARXNN as the most favorable trade-off among evaluated baselines.