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174 Agilent N5161A/62A/81A/82A/83A MXG Signal Generators User’s Guide
Basic Digital Operation (Option 651/652/654) Preliminary
Clipping a Waveform Preliminary
How Peaks Cause Spectral Regrowth
In a waveform, high power peaks that occur infrequently cause the waveform to have a high
peak–to–average power ratio, as illustrated in the following figure.
Because the gain of a transmitter’s power amplifier is set to provide a specific average power, high
peaks can cause the power amplifier to move toward saturation. This causes the intermodulation
distortion that generates spectral regrowth. Spectral regrowth is a range of frequencies that develops
on each side of the carrier (similar to sidebands) and extends into the adjacent frequency bands (see
the following figure). Clipping provides a solution to this problem by reducing the peak–to–average
power ratio.