Integrated RF front end with stacked transistor switch
First Claim
1. An integrated RF Power Amplifier (PA) circuit, comprising:
- a. an input node to accept an input signal with respect to a reference voltage Vref, the input node connected to a first gate of a first MOSFET, wherein a source of MOSFET is connected to Vref;
b. one or more MOSFETs connected in series with the first MOSFET to form a transistor stack, wherein the first MOSFET comprises a bottom transistor of the transistor stack, and the one or more MOSFETs comprises a top transistor of the transistor stack, wherein the transistor stack is configured to control conduction between the reference voltage Vref and an output drive node, and wherein the output drive node is connected to a drain of the top transistor of the transistor stack; and
c. one or more predominantly capacitive elements connected directly between a corresponding gate of the one or more MOSFETs and Vref.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A monolithic integrated circuit (IC), and method of manufacturing same, that includes all RF front end or transceiver elements for a portable communication device, including a power amplifier (PA), a matching, coupling and filtering network, and an antenna switch to couple the conditioned PA signal to an antenna. An output signal sensor senses at least a voltage amplitude of the signal switched by the antenna switch, and signals a PA control circuit to limit PA output power in response to excessive values of sensed output. Stacks of multiple FETs in series to operate as a switching device may be used for implementation of the RF front end, and the method and apparatus of such stacks are claimed as subcombinations. An iClass PA architecture is described that dissipatively terminates unwanted harmonics of the PA output signal. A preferred embodiment of the RF transceiver IC includes two distinct PA circuits, two distinct receive signal amplifier circuits, and a four-way antenna switch to selectably couple a single antenna connection to any one of the four circuits.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. An integrated RF Power Amplifier (PA) circuit, comprising:
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a. an input node to accept an input signal with respect to a reference voltage Vref, the input node connected to a first gate of a first MOSFET, wherein a source of MOSFET is connected to Vref; b. one or more MOSFETs connected in series with the first MOSFET to form a transistor stack, wherein the first MOSFET comprises a bottom transistor of the transistor stack, and the one or more MOSFETs comprises a top transistor of the transistor stack, wherein the transistor stack is configured to control conduction between the reference voltage Vref and an output drive node, and wherein the output drive node is connected to a drain of the top transistor of the transistor stack; and c. one or more predominantly capacitive elements connected directly between a corresponding gate of the one or more MOSFETs and Vref. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification