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. 06, 2012
Filed:
Feb. 05, 2009
Daniel P. Mccarthy, Elk Grove Village, IL (US);
Lawrence E. Connell, Naperville, IL (US);
Neal W. Hollenbeck, Palatine, IL (US);
Daniel P. McCarthy, Elk Grove Village, IL (US);
Lawrence E. Connell, Naperville, IL (US);
Neal W. Hollenbeck, Palatine, IL (US);
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A variable attenuator and method of attenuating a signal is presented. The variable attenuator contains an input that receives an input signal to be attenuated. A voltage divider between a resistor and parallel MOSFETs provides the attenuated input signal. The MOSFETs have different sizes and have gates that are connected to a control signal through different resistances such that the larger the MOSFET, the larger the resistance. The control signal is dependent on the output of the attenuator. The arrangement extends the linearity of the attenuation over a wide voltage range of the control signal and decreases the intermodulation distortion of the attenuator.