A predistortion power amplifier architecture has a power amplifier which
receives an input via an amplitude modulator and a phase modulator. A
sample of the output of the amplifier and a sample of the input to the
amplifier are applied to an adaptive pre-distorter subsystem. The
adaptive pre-distorter generates a gain correction signal which is
applied to the amplitude modulator and a phase correction signal which is
applied to the phase modulator. This serves to predistort the input
signal to the power amplifier to compensate for non-linearities in the
power amplifier. A switching arrangement alternately couples a sample of
the input and output of the amplifier to a first and a second envelope
detector. The outputs of the envelope detectors are applied to a
difference amplifier. The switching arrangement has a chopping action on
the signals which helps to offset imbalances in the characteristics of
the two envelope detectors.