Abstract: A sensor circuit, method and apparatus are provided. A clock source may be configured to generate a clock signal. A plurality of samplers may be configured to receive a plurality of radio frequency signals and to produce, based on the clock signal, a plurality of low-frequency samples. A data analyzer may be configured to process low-resolution representations of the plurality of low-frequency samples collected over a plurality of sampling instances and process them at low or medium resolution to generate one or more data analysis metrics associated with the plurality of RF signals. The sensor circuit including samplers taking low-frequency samples, and a data analyzer processing low-resolution or medium-resolution representations of a number of samples collected over time for statistical analysis, provides power efficiency compared to known approaches that use power-hungry samplers at a high frequency.

Abstract: A wireless communication system includes a power amplifier (PA) configured to receive a radio frequency (RF) input signal and to produce a PA output signal, the PA output signal being an amplified version of the RF input signal. A sensor subsystem is configured to perform asynchronous statistical sampling of the RF input signal and of the PA output signal and to generate a sensor subsystem output. A controller, in communication with the sensor subsystem, is configured to obtain the sensor subsystem output and to infer performance of the PA, and may control one or more of a plurality of internal PA parameters. The controller may include a neural network processor to associate a particular statistical input/output characterization with a particular inferred performance for the PA. Compared to known approaches, the system is scalable and achieves lower power consumption, and is configured to obtain information about linearity performance.