Psemi Corporation

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation

Joseph P Golat

David Kovac

Lawrence Edwin Connell

Tero Tapio Ranta

Daniel Lee Kaczman

Manish N Shah

Ronald Eugene Reedy

Chris Olson

Poojan Wagh

Jeffrey A Dykstra

Neil Calanca

Jyoti P Mondal

Joseph M Ingino

Yan Cui

Erica Poole

Methods and apparatuses for controlling gain of a single stage cascode FET amplifier are presented. According to one aspect, a series-connected resistor and capacitor is coupled to a gate of a cascode FET transistor of the amplifier, the capacitor providing a short at frequencies of operation of the amplifier. According to another aspect, values of the resistor can be used to control gain of the amplifier. According to yet another aspect, the resistor is a variable resistor whose value can be controlled/adjusted to provide different gains of the amplifier according to a linear function of the resistor value. An input matching network coupled to an input of the amplifier can be used to compensate for different noise figure degradations from different values of the resistor.

Cascode gain boosting and linear gain control using gate resistor

RF transistors manufactured using a bulk CMOS process exhibit non-linear drain-body and source-body capacitances which degrade the linearity performance of the RF circuits implementing such transistors. The disclosed methods and devices address this issue and provide solutions based on implementing two or more bias voltages in accordance with the states of the transistors. Various exemplary RF circuits benefiting from the described methods and devices are also presented.

High power RF switch with controlled well voltage for improved linearity

A receiver front end capable of receiving and processing intraband non-contiguous carrier aggregate (CA) signals using multiple low noise amplifiers (LNAs). Cascode circuits, each having a 'common source' configured input FET and a 'common gate' configured output FET, serve as the LNAs. An amplifier-branch control switch, configured to withstand relatively high voltage differentials by means of a relatively thick gate oxide layer and coupled between a terminal of the output FET and a power supply, controls the ON and OFF state of each LNA while enabling use of a relatively thin gate oxide layer for the output FETs, thus improving LNA performance. Some embodiments may include a split cascode amplifier and/or a power amplifier.

Source switch split LNA design with thin cascodes and high supply voltage

Methods and devices for processing of RF signals according to different gain modes are presented. According to one aspect, an active amplification mode is provided by switchable active paths coupled to respective input RF signals and a passive attenuation mode is provided by switchable passive paths coupled to the respective RF signals. According to another aspect, a common switchable feedback path coupled to the switchable active paths is used to provide an active attenuation mode. Coupling of the common switchable feedback path to the switchable active path is provided by switches of the switchable passive paths, including for coupling both ends of the common switchable feedback path or just one end.

Bypass path reuse as feedback path in frontend module

Methods and devices to improve the insertion loss at the LNA input of RF receivers are disclosed. The described methods and devices make use of the band switches in OFF state to improve the layout design, insertion loss and NF. Exemplary embodiments incorporating the disclosed concept are also presented.

Disabled input switch for LNA input attenuation

A single supply RF switch driver. The single supply RF switch driver includes an inverter, where a first resistor has been integrated within the inverter, and the resistor is connected to an RF switch. In one aspect, the integration of the first resistor within the inverter allows for the elimination of a negative power supply for the inverter, while maximizing the isolation achieved in the RF switch. In another aspect, the driver is a configured to have a second resistor integrated within the inverter. A third resistor is connected between the gate of the RF switch and the inverter. In an alternate aspect, the driver operates from a positive power supply and a negative power supply, thus increasing the isolation in the RF switch even further.

Single supply RF switch driver

In electronic circuits having various gain states, small gain phase shift differences required among various gain states may pose a challenging problem. The disclosed methods and devices provide solution to such challenge. Electronic circuits are described wherein a first path including an amplifier may be bypassed by a second path including only passive elements and for gain states smaller than 0 dB. In such electronic circuits, a phase shifter included in the second path can be adjusted to address the required phase shift among various gain states.

LNA with controlled phase bypass

Methods and devices for tuning a configurable amplifier of a multi-band RF front-end stage based on a setting of a band switch are described. A lookup table provided with the configurable amplifier is used to map configuration control data of the band switch to configuration control data of the configurable amplifier. The configurable amplifier can be part of a transmit path or a receive path of the multi-band RF front-end stage.

Tuned amplifier matching based on band switch setting

Systems, methods and apparatus for efficient control and biasing of pass devices that include at least one thin pass device and a remaining of thick pass devices. When operated at extreme high and low voltages, the at least one thin pass device maintains operation in its saturation region of operation while the remaining pass devices may be driven into their triode regions of operation. The thin and thick pass devices are arranged in a cascode configuration that includes a plurality of stacked devices. Biasing of the thin and thick cascode devices can be according to a voltage division scheme which protects the devices when the voltage across the stack is high, and provides a skewed voltage division across the stacked devices that promotes a higher gate-to-source voltage of the thick pass devices for a lower R. In one exemplary case, gate length of the at least one thin pass device may be reduced to provide a lower gate-to-source voltage of the thin pass device during operation in the saturation region. An exemplary implementation of an LDO controlling the pass devices for providing RF power to a power amplifier is described.

Low dropout regulator with thin pass device

Various methods and circuital arrangements for biasing one or more gates of stacked transistors of an amplifier are presented, where the amplifier can be an envelope tracking amplifier. Circuital arrangements to generate reference gate-to-source voltages for biasing of the gates of the transistors of the stack are also presented. Particular biasing for a case of an input transistor of the stack is also presented.

Bias control for stacked transistor configuration

A balanced mixer circuit (and) in a baseband receiver () includes an oscillator circuit (), a mixer (and), a digital-to-analog converter (and) and a digital signal processor (). The mixer includes CMOS devices (and). In response to differential outputs from the mixer, the digital signal processor controls the digital-to-analog converter to output bias voltages for the gate of at least one of the CMOS devices of the mixer to compensate for imbalance in the differential output of the mixer that may be caused by mismatch among two or more CMOS devices of the mixer or caused by other reasons, in order to increase second order intercept point of the mixer.

Mixer circuits for second order intercept point calibration

A receiver () comprises an antenna input (), a filter (), a voltage-to-current converter (), a down frequency conversion mixer (), and a current-to-voltage converter (). The antenna input operably couples to an antenna. The filter has a filter input that operably couples to the antenna input and can further have a filter output. The voltage-to-current converter has an input that is operably coupled to the filter output and can further have a voltage-to-current converter output. The down frequency conversion mixer has a mixer input that is operably coupled to the voltage-to-current converter output and can further have a mixer output. And the current-to-voltage converter has an input that is operably coupled to the mixer output and can further have a current-to-voltage converter output. By one approach, this current-to-voltage converter comprises an amplifier having a current gain of substantially unity or less.

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Algonquin, IL, United States of America

Joseph P Golat