The Boeing Company

David R Hogue

Rodney Kevin Bonebright

Harold J Redd

Michael H Florian

A bus leveling system for automatically monitoring and maintaining the amplitude of a radio frequency (RF) signal carded on a bus. A two-stage variable gain amplifier (64) is connected in series with the bus. Each stage of the variable gain amplifier is constructed with a PIN diode (84, 86) in a feedback path of the stage. The amplification of the variable gain amplifier is varied by the injection of current into the feedback path to adjust the resistance of the PIN diodes. A control circuit having an RE detector (78) is provided to monitor and adjust the gain generated by the variable gain amplifier. Preferably, the control circuit and the variable gain amplifier are incorporated into an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) (62). The RF detector is constructed of two Gilbert multipliers (202, 204) to minimize errors caused by operating condition changes, including variations in power supply voltage, temperature, or process.

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Renton, WA, United States of America

David R Hogue