Crest factor reduction engine for multicarrier WCDMA transmitted signals

Code division multiple access (CDMA) systems can have high peak to average power ratio (PAR) due to their multicode nature. Power amplifiers (PA) that are used to boost the power of multicarrier (multiple radio frequency carriers) CDMA transmitted signal have to operate with significant back-off in order to avoid saturation. Power amplifier saturation causes intermodulation products and adjacent channel interference (ACI). Crest factor reduction (CFR) techniques are used to reduce transmitted signal peak power to a certain level in order to avoid PA saturation and lead to a more efficient usage of PAs. However, by reducing the peak power to a programmable level the actual transmitted signal is distorted. There is a trade off between signal peak compression and CDMA transmitted waveform quality.