Atmel Corporation

Michael Sagebiel

Martin Fischer

Werner Blatz

Daniel Moser

Thomas Janz

Jan Knopf

Stephan Gerlach

In some implementations, an automatic gain control (AGC) circuit comprises: a pre-divider circuit operable to pre-divide an input signal according to a pre-divider circuit setting and output a pre-divided signal; a pre-amplifier operable to pre-amplify the pre-divided signal and output a pre-amplified signal; a post-divider circuit operable to post-divide the pre-amplified signal according to a post-divider circuit setting; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operable to generate a digital data stream from the post-divided signal; logic operable to sample the digital data stream; determine a pre-divider circuit setting and a post-divider circuit setting based on the sampled data stream; set the pre-divider circuit and the post-divider circuit based on the determined settings; and generate a received signal strength value based on the pre-divider circuit setting and the post-divider circuit setting.

Automatic gain control for received signal strength indication

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a radio frequency (RF) at an antenna; generating negative feedback to linearize an amplifier by resistively or transformer coupling an output signal of a transistor of the amplifier to the input of the transistor; generating a rectified voltage by rectification of the output signal of the transistor; generating a constant reference voltage; and outputting a control voltage or a control current to the transistor based on the sum of the reference voltage and a first voltage derived from the rectified voltage. The output of the control voltage or control current facilitates control of an operating point of the transistor.

Amplification of an incoming signal received via an antenna

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Leingarten, Germany

Michael Sagebiel