Qorvo Us, Inc.

Rf Micro Devices, Inc.

Cody Hale

Swaminathan Muthukrishnan

Nathaniel Peachey

Peng Cheng

Ryan M Pratt

Randy Naylor

Brian Robbins

Ralph Williamson

Yun Seo Koo

Nicholas Liu

Circuitry having a reference current generator and a reference current governor is disclosed. The reference current governor includes field effect transistors (FETs) that are sized such that a governor current governs a reference current flowing through the first FET to maintain the reference current within a desired reference current range.

Bias circuitry

An electro-static discharge (ESD) protection circuit utilizes a gate-drain breakdown characteristic of high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) in a dual stacked configuration to provide a discharge path for electro-static discharges, while having a minimal effect on the associated circuit which is being protected.

Clamp based ESD protection circuits

Antenna switching circuitry comprises a plurality of communication ports, an antenna port, a plurality of switches, and an ESD protection device. The plurality of switches are adapted to selectively couple one or more of the communication ports to the antenna port in order to transmit or receive a signal. The ESD protection device is coupled between one of the plurality of communication ports and ground, and is adapted to form a substantially low impedance path to ground during an ESD event. Upon the occurrence of an ESD event, a received electrostatic charge passes through one or more of the plurality of switches to the ESD protection device, where it is safely diverted to ground. By using only one ESD protection device, desensitization of the antenna switching circuitry due to the parasitic loading of the ESD protection device is avoided. Further, the area of the antenna switching circuitry is minimized.

Multiple port RF switch ESD protection using single protection structure

A RF switch may be used as a power splitter in order to allow WLAN and Bluetooth (BT) coexistence. Multiple branches of the RF switch are enabled concurrently, which allows WLAN and BT signals to be received simultaneously. The RF switch functions as a power splitter to split signals received from an antenna to both a WLAN receiver and a BT receiver. In one embodiment, a second switch may be placed on an output of a low noise amplifier (LNA). This configuration will operate as a power splitter between WLAN receiver port and a BT port, and maximize the receiver sensitivity by amplifying both the WLAN and BT signals. One or both of the two switches may also function to bypass the LNA when the LNA is not needed to provide a low loss RF path, which serves to broaden the dynamic range of the device and avoid signal distortion during periods of increased signal power.

RF switch power splitter for WLAN and bluetooth coexistence

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Browns Summit, NC, United States of America

Cody Hale