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:
Mar. 09, 2004
Filed:
Apr. 02, 2002
Harry S. Harberts, San Marcos, CA (US);
Northrop Grumman Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
A switched gain circuit ( ) that employs a plurality of conduction paths ( ) that provide different levels of signal gain or attenuation to an analog input signal. Each conduction path ( ) includes a plurality of switching devices ( and ), such as heterojunction bipolar transistors. Further, each conduction path includes a gain device such as a degenerative resistor, that provides gain or attenuation to the analog input signals. A separate control signal is applied to a switching device ( ) in each conduction path ( ) to select a particular conduction path to be coupled to the output. The analog input signal can be a differential analog input signal where a first part of the signal is coupled to the base terminal of a bipolar transistor ( ) in each conduction path ( ), and a second part of the analog signal is coupled to the base terminal of another bipolar transistor ( ) in each conduction path ( ).