The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 09, 1997
Filed:
Apr. 12, 1996
Eric R Ehlers, Santa Rosa, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
In the present invention a monolithic step attenuator has internal frequency compensation provided by a field effect transistor, or FET, fabricated to have a well defined drain-to-source capacitance. The drain-to-source capacitance of the FET cancels the effect of parasitic impedances, providing a constant frequency response for the monolithic step attenuator within a defined frequency range. In a first embodiment of the present invention, internal frequency compensation is provided by a FET connected in a shunt arm of a Tee resistor network forming the monolithic step attenuator. In a second embodiment of the present invention, internal frequency compensation is provided by a pair of FETs, each FET connected in one of two shunt arms of a Pi resistor network forming the monolithic step attenuator. In a third embodiment of the present invention, a multicell step attenuator is formed by connecting multiple monolithic step attenuators having internal frequency compensation in series.