| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 330284000 | Having attenuation means in signal transmission path | 32 |
| 20080204143 | WIDE DYNAMIC RANGE AMPLIFIER GAIN CONTROL - Linear wide dynamic range variable gain amplifiers can be configured using a variable gain amplifier having an abbreviated gain control range in combination with a discrete attenuator controlled to select an attenuation from a predetermined set of attenuation values. The variable gain amplifier is configured to provide substantially linear gain control over the abbreviated gain control range, where the abbreviated gain control range is less than a total desired gain control range. The difference between adjacent attenuation values in the set of attenuation values is configured to be approximately less than or equal to the abbreviated gain control range. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080204144 | Input stage for an amplifier - In one embodiment, the present invention includes an amplifier having an input to receive a radio frequency (RF) signal from an output node of a source. An input stage coupled to the amplifier input may include one or more components to aid in processing of incoming signals. One such component coupled between the source and the input of the amplifier is a coupling capacitor used to maintain a bias voltage of the amplifier at a different potential than a DC voltage of the output node. In certain applications, the amplifier and the coupling capacitor may be integrated on a single substrate. | 08-28-2008 |
| 20080218269 | POWER AMPLIFIER CIRCUIT, CONTROL METHOD THEREOF AND CONTROL PROGRAM THEREOF - A power amplifier circuit includes a first variable gain amplifier for amplifying an input signal, a second variable gain amplifier for amplifying an output signal of the first amplifier, and a control circuit for controlling the gain of the first variable gain amplifier based on the output signal of the first variable gain amplifier and the gain of the second variable gain amplifier. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20080252378 | Gain Adjustment for Programmable Gain Amplifiers - A programmable gain amplifier (PGA) circuit includes a gain adjust circuit and a gain select circuit that are both coupled to an output of an amplifier. The gain select circuit completes feedback to the amplifier while the gain adjust circuit is arranged to boost or cut the gain of the gain selection circuit. The gain adjust circuit can be arranged as a trim adjustment to the overall gain of the PGA circuit, where a different trim adjustment can be mapped to each gain setting such as from a look-up table. In other example implementations, the PGA circuit can periodically switch between multiple gain settings using a modulation scheme such that the overall gain is blended between the various gain settings according to a duty cycle, pulse-width, or delta-sigma modulation, with a time averaging effect on the overall gain of the PGA circuit. | 10-16-2008 |
| 20080278239 | POWER AMPLIFIER WITH CONTROLLED OUTPUT POWER - The invention includes a power amplifier with an amplifier core including parallel amplifier cells, a replica cell made of one amplifier cell similar to those of the amplifier core, a power controller to select a combination of amplifier cells to activate, a regulator to fix the top voltage of the replica cell to a reference voltage, a voltage generator to provide the voltage reference to the regulator, a current generator to provide a reference current through the replica cell, and a drive unit controlled by the regulator output to drive the combination of amplifier cells, so that each selected combination of activated cells defines a predetermined attenuation level of power amplifier output signal so that it is attenuated in a stepwise manner. | 11-13-2008 |
| 20080278240 | RECEIVER CIRCUITRY - Receiving circuitry having a plurality of amplifiers coupled in series, a first of the amplifiers receiving an input signal and each of the amplifiers outputting an amplified signal; a plurality of comparators each coupled to the output of one of the amplifiers and having an input for receiving the amplified signal; signal identification circuitry coupled to the outputs of the comparators and arranged to determine whether the outputs of the comparators validly represent data; and signal selection circuitry arranged to select the best signal originating from the comparators based on the validity of the outputs of the comparators. | 11-13-2008 |
| 20080284518 | OVERDRIVE CONTROL SYSTEM - An overdrive control system includes a voltage controlled current source to deliver a compensation current, and being between a first voltage reference and an internal node, which is connected to an output terminal. The voltage controlled current source has a control terminal connected to an output terminal of an adding block, which has a positive input connected to an input terminal. At least one clamping block is between the output terminal and a second voltage reference, and is connected to a negative input of the adding block. The voltage controlled current source delivers its compensation current to the output terminal when a voltage signal on the input terminal has an higher value than a voltage signal on the output terminal, and forces an output voltage signal to follow an input voltage signal to an extent that depends on a clamping voltage provided by the clamping block. | 11-20-2008 |
| 20080309413 | GAIN SWITCHING LOW-NOISE AMPLIFIER CIRCUIT - In a gain switching LNA including a first transistor, a first transistor group (for example, second to ninth transistors) and a second transistor group (for example, tenth to seventeenth transistors), a first resistor connected between an emitter of the tenth transistor and a collector of the first transistor and a second resistor connected to emitters of eleventh to seventeenth transistors and the collector of the first transistor and having a resistance one seventh as high as that of the first resistor are provided. In a high-gain mode, since isolation of the tenth to seventeenth transistors which are turned OFF and the first and second to ninth transistors is secured by the first resistor and the second resistor, there is no deterioration in the noise factor. | 12-18-2008 |
| 20090174484 | POWER AMPLIFIER - An amplifying transistor for amplifying a radio frequency signal between an input terminal and an output terminal. The cathode of a first diode is connected to the input terminal and the anode of a second diode is connected to the output terminal. A matching and attenuating circuit is connected between the anode of the first diode and the cathode of the second diode. A matching and attenuating circuit reduces impedance mismatches on the input terminal side and the output terminal side, and attenuates the radio frequency signal. In an amplification mode, a bias circuit supplies a bias current to an amplifying transistor and a current mirror circuit turns off the first and second diodes. In an attenuation mode, the bias circuit supplies no bias current to the amplifying transistor and the current mirror circuit turns on the first and second diodes. | 07-09-2009 |
| 20090184768 | Attenuation Compensating Circuit - An attenuation compensating circuit includes a detector and a stabilizer. The detector has a dummy capacitor corresponding to a capacitor connected to an input terminal of an amplifier and, by detecting the degree of attenuation of a dummy signal passing through the dummy capacitor, detects the degree of attenuation when a signal to be amplified passes through the capacitor connected to the amplifier. The stabilizer has two dummy amplifiers and causes a voltage difference between the input voltages of the dummy amplifiers, where the voltage difference corresponds to the degree of attenuation detected by the detector. The stabilizer controls a bias voltage for setting gain of the dummy amplifier so that a product of the voltage difference of the input voltage and the gain of the dummy amplifier is equivalent to the difference of the voltages output by the dummy amplifiers and supplies the bias voltage to the amplifier. | 07-23-2009 |
| 20090201091 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ATTENUATOR - An apparatus for setting an attenuation of an attenuator includes a control transistor, which includes a drain connected to a gate of a shunt transistor of the attenuator. A channel resistance of the shunt transistor corresponds to a current density of the control transistor, and the channel resistance of the shunt transistor determines the attenuation of the attenuator. The current density of the control transistor is based at least in part on a control voltage input to the apparatus. | 08-13-2009 |
| 20090206932 | LOW NOISE AMPLIFIER GAIN CONTROLLED SCHEME - An amplifier includes an amplifier module coupled to an input node, and an attenuating module. The attenuating module includes an attenuation resistor coupled to the input node, and an impedance compensation module coupled to the input node. The impedance compensation module compensates an input impedance when an input RF signal is attenuated by the attenuating module. | 08-20-2009 |
| 20090212867 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT DEVICE AND ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENT - An integrated circuit device includes an amplifier circuit that receives an input signal and performs an offset adjustment corresponding to a DC offset of the input signal and a gain adjustment corresponding to an amplitude of the input signal, a filter that is provided in a subsequent stage of the amplifier circuit, a cut-off frequency of the filter being variably set corresponding to a frequency band of the input signal, an A/D converter that is provided in a subsequent stage of the filter and performs an A/D conversion process on a signal amplified by the amplifier circuit, and a control circuit that sets an offset adjustment of the amplifier circuit, a gain adjustment of the amplifier circuit, and the cut-off frequency of the filter. | 08-27-2009 |
| 20100007421 | ATTENUATOR WITH BIAS CONTROL CIRCUIT - An attenuator includes one or more series attenuation branches including one or more series field effect transistors (FETs) each having a gate; one or more shunt attenuation branches including one or more shunt FETs each having a gate; and a bias control FET. The bias control FET receives at its gate a first bias control signal and in response thereto produces at one of its drain and source terminals a second bias control signal. Either the first bias control signal is coupled to the gates of one or more series FETs, and the second bias control signal is coupled to the gates of the one or more shunt FETs; or the first bias control signal is coupled to the gates of the one or more shunt FETs, and the second bias control signal is coupled to the gates of the one or more series FETs. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20100127779 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VARIABLE-GAIN AMPLIFIER - Method for a variable-gain amplifier (VGA). A plurality of attenuator nodes is serially connected via a first set of resistors between adjacent attenuator nodes to form an attenuator ladder and coupled to an AC input of the variable-gain amplifier. Each of the attenuator nodes includes a transistor and an RC circuitry that couples drain, gate, and source terminals of the transistor to a control signal for the attenuator node. The VGA also includes an amplifier that has an output produced based on an input to the amplifier connected to a plurality of coupled terminals, each of which is respectively from one of the plurality of attenuator nodes. The RC circuitry for each attenuator node is configured to pass a control signal to the gate terminal of the transistor of the attenuator node in accordance with a first time scale and permit the gate terminal to float in accordance with a second time scale so as to yield a reduction of distortion contributed by the transistor while the transistor is transitioning between on and off states. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20100182092 | POWER SENSITIVE VARIABLE ATTENUATOR - A variable attenuator having: an input port; a semiconductor device having a control electrode for controlling carriers flowing between a first electrode and a second electrode, such control electrode being coupled to one of the first and second electrodes, one of the first and second electrodes being coupled to the input port and the other one of the first and second electrodes being coupled to a reference potential to form an active device characterized by such device having a resistivity in the device to the flow of carriers substantially constant when such device is fed through input port with a signal having a relatively small power level and having a resistivity in the device to the flow of carriers which is nonlinear when such device is fed through input port with a signal having a relatively large power level; and an output port coupled to one of the first and second electrodes coupled to the input port. Such a network may be used with a power amplifier to reduce excessive small signal gain and soft compression. | 07-22-2010 |
| 20110001563 | PIN-DIODE Linearized Automatic Gain Control Circuits - Automatic Gain Control AGC circuit comprising a PIN-diode attenuator having an input and an output and a control circuit connected to the attenuator so as to read a signal at the attenuator output. The control circuit is configured to supply a feedback control signal to the attenuator based on an error signal between the signal read at the attenuator output and a reference signal, so as to modulate an attenuation level of said attenuator and maintain a substantially constant power level at the attenuator output. The control circuit particularly comprises at least a resistor and a capacitor which define a time constant of the AGC circuit, so that the AGC circuit features a main pole depending on such time constant and on a voltage of the feedback control signal. The control circuit also comprises a variable gain block, which receives the feedback control signal and which is configured to modulate the main pole proportionally to a variable gain (G) of the gain block. Such gain (G) is varied substantially inversely to the feedback control signal voltage. | 01-06-2011 |
| 20110001564 | VARIABLE GAIN AMPLIFIER - A variable gain amplifier which includes a plurality of individual amplifiers and variably controls the gain by switching to and using one of the individual amplifier circuits includes an individual amplifier ( | 01-06-2011 |
| 20110025421 | STEP VARIABLE GAIN AMPLIFIER - Disclosed is a step variable gain amplifier for linearly amplifying a signal received from an antenna. The step variable gain amplifier includes: an amplification unit for converting and amplifying a voltage component of a received signal into a current voltage according to a step amplification control signal; a controller for generating a step amplification control signal of the received signal and controlling on/off of the amplification unit according to the control signal; and an output unit connected to the amplification unit, the output unit outputting a voltage component from the signal that has been subjected to conversion into the current component and amplification processes. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110050346 | Method and Apparatus for Compensating for Gain Changes in an Amplifier Circuit - In a method and apparatus for compensating for gain changes in an amplifier circuit comprising radio-frequency modules and attenuation elements, a radio-frequency module is driven with a first temperature-dependent monitoring voltage U | 03-03-2011 |
| 20110090010 | Variable gain amplification device - Provided is a variable gain amplification device that suppresses deterioration of a noise characteristic generated according to an amount of attenuation by fixing the amount of attenuation while a variable gain amplification unit is changing a gain. The variable gain amplification device includes a variable attenuation unit that attenuates an input signal. The variable gain amplification device further includes a variable gain amplification unit that changes and amplifies a gain of the attenuated input signal which is output by the variable attenuation unit. A control unit is further included that controls to fix the amount of attenuation of the variable attenuation unit while the variable gain amplification unit is changing the gain. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110121904 | COMPARISON JUDGMENT CIRCUIT - A comparison judgment circuit judges the level of a signal received, via a transmission line, from a second device which is a communication partner. An input/output terminal is connected to the transmission line. An attenuator circuit attenuates the voltage at the input/output terminal so as to generate an attenuated voltage. A level comparator compares the attenuated voltage with a predetermined threshold voltage, and generates a level judgment signal that corresponds to the comparison result. A protection circuit monitors the voltage at the input/output terminal or the attenuated voltage. When the voltage to be monitored deviates from a predetermined voltage range, the protection circuit forcibly cuts off or changes the voltage input to the level comparator. | 05-26-2011 |
| 20110221531 | VARIABLE GAIN AMPLIFIER AND HIGH-FREQUENCY SIGNAL RECEIVING APPARATUS COMPRISING THE SAME - A cascode amplification unit includes a plurality of cascode amplifiers connected in parallel. Each of the cascode amplifiers has two transistors. A cascode current source unit includes a plurality of cascode current sources connected in parallel. Each of the cascode current sources has two transistors. Both the output end of the cascode amplification unit and the output end of the cascode current source unit are connected to a load circuit. The control circuit turns on and off each cascode transistor of the cascode amplifier and each cascode transistor of the cascode current source so that an amount of current passing through the load circuit is constant. | 09-15-2011 |
| 20120161875 | Amplification Circuit - An amplification circuit, which may be in a receive path of a communication device, includes an amplifier including at least a first amplification device and a switchable attenuation circuit. The switchable attenuation circuit includes one or more switches and a plurality of attenuation devices and is operable to provide different levels of attenuation to an input signal prior to input to the amplifier depending on the status of the one or more switches. The attenuation devices may be capacitors, wherein the capacitors may be arranged to form a capacitive divider with a level of attenuation dependent on the status of the switches. The switchable attenuation circuit may be a switched capacitive attenuation ladder of n stages, n being any integer, each ladder stage including a capacitive divider. The amplification circuit may also include a switch, which when closed provides an unattenuated path for the input signal to the amplifier input. | 06-28-2012 |
| 20120206205 | VARIABLE GAIN AMPLIFIER - The invention relates to a variable gain amplifier comprising a first attenuator ( | 08-16-2012 |
| 20120326791 | Voltage Controlling Circuit - A voltage clamping module is disposed at an output terminal of a gain amplifying module, so that a voltage level of an amplifying signal outputted by the gain amplifying module can be clamped within a predetermined range. The voltage clamping module includes an upper bound voltage clamping module, which is utilized for limiting the voltage level of the amplifying signal to be lower than an upper bound voltage level, and a lower bound voltage clamping module, which is utilized for limiting the voltage level of the amplifying signal to be higher than a lower bound voltage level. | 12-27-2012 |
| 20130093520 | POWER AMPLIFIER WITH LOW NOISE FIGURE AND VOLTAGE VARIABLE GAIN - The object of the present invention is a low noise figure amplifier with a variable gain which comprises a cascode amplification stage comprising, serially mounted, a low-voltage MOSFET transistor installed as a common source followed by a bipolar transistor with high breakdown voltage installed as a common base. A resistor is placed between the bipolar transistor's collector and the grid of the cascode stage's MOSFET transistor, and the cascode stage is electrically powered through a choke. | 04-18-2013 |
| 20140022019 | Amplification Circuit - An amplification circuit, which may be in a receive path of a communication device, includes an amplifier including at least a first amplification device and a switchable attenuation circuit. The switchable attenuation circuit includes one or more switches and a plurality of attenuation devices and is operable to provide different levels of attenuation to an input signal prior to input to the amplifier depending on the status of the one or more switches. The attenuation devices may be capacitors, wherein the capacitors may be arranged to form a capacitive divider with a level of attenuation dependent on the status of the switches. The switchable attenuation circuit may be a switched capacitive attenuation ladder of n stages, n being any integer, each ladder stage including a capacitive divider. The amplification circuit may also include a switch, which when closed provides an unattenuated path for the input signal to the amplifier input. | 01-23-2014 |
| 20140266454 | LNA with Linearized Gain Over Extended Dynamic Range - A low noise amplifier including a variable gain amplifier stage configured to accept an input signal and to provide a load driving signal; a tunable bandpass filter connected as a load to the variable gain amplifier stage, wherein the bandpass filter includes a cross-coupled transistor pair, and at least one cross-coupled compensation transistor pair biased in a subthreshold region configured to add a transconductance component when the load driving signal is of a magnitude large enough to decreases a transconductance of the cross-coupled transistor pair; and, a controller circuit configured to tune the bandpass filter. The filter can be tuned in respect to the frequency and the quality factor Q. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20150091649 | PULSED DYNAMIC LOAD MODULATION POWER AMPLIFIER CIRCUIT - A power amplifier circuit for amplifying an envelope modulated Radio Frequency (RF) signal with improved linearity and efficiency includes a power amplifier, and a variable load matching circuit coupled to an output port of the power amplifier. The input impedance of the variable load matching circuit is changed such that an output power of the power amplifier is at a first output power level, or a second output power level which is higher than the first output power level. | 04-02-2015 |
| 20150349720 | POWER AMPLIFIERS WITH SIGNAL CONDITIONING - A device includes an amplifier having a first path and a second path and a first variable attenuator connected to the first path. The device includes a controller coupled to the first variable attenuator. The controller is configured to determine a magnitude of an input signal to the amplifier. When the magnitude of the input signal is below a threshold, the controller is configured to set an attenuation of the first variable attenuator to a first attenuation value. When the magnitude of the input signal is above the threshold, the controller is configured to set the attenuation of the first variable attenuator to a second attenuation value. The second attenuation value is less than the first attenuation value. | 12-03-2015 |
| 20160036403 | MULTIPLE-PORT SIGNAL BOOSTERS - A signal booster is disclosed that includes a first interface port, a second interface port, a downlink signal splitter device, an uplink signal splitter device, a main booster and a first front-end booster. The downlink signal splitter device can communicate a downlink signal from the first interface port to a plurality of interface ports. The uplink signal splitter device can communicate an uplink signal from the plurality of interface ports to the first interface port. The main booster can include a main downlink amplification path and a main uplink amplification path. The first front-end booster can include a first front-end downlink amplification path and a first front-end uplink amplification path. | 02-04-2016 |
