Various methods and circuital arrangements for protection of an RF amplifier are presented. According to one aspect, the RF amplifier is part of switchable RF paths that include at least one path with one or more attenuators that can be used during normal operation to define different modes of operation of the at least one path. An RF level detector monitors a level of an RF signal during operation of any one of the switchable RF paths and forces the RF signal through the at least one path with one or more attenuators while controlling the attenuators to provide an attenuation of the RF signal according to a desired level of protection at an input and/or output of the RF amplifier.

A variable-gain amplifier and a phased array system are provided. A variable-gain amplifier includes a cascode circuit comprising a first amplification transistor and a second amplification transistor array that are cascaded, the second amplification transistor array comprising a plurality of second amplification transistors connected in parallel and configured to output an adjustable current to an output matching network, the first amplification transistor is a common-source transistor, the plurality of second amplification transistors are common-gate transistors, or the cascode circuit is a common-emitter common-base circuit, the first amplification transistor is a common-emitter amplification circuit, and the second amplification transistor array is a common-base amplification circuit. The variable-gain amplifier further including a variable capacitor circuit coupled to the second amplification transistor array and coupled to the output matching network at first nodes.

An LNA having a plurality of paths, each of which can be controlled independently to achieve a gain mode. Each path includes at least an input FET and an output FET coupled in series. A gate of the output FET is controlled to set the gain of the LNA. Signals to be amplified are applied to the gate of the input FET. Additional stacked FETs are provided in series between the input FET and the output FET.

A signal receiving device may not need to consider jitter characteristics of a received signal by including a transition detecting device which receives first to third input signals having different signal levels for each unit interval, compares whether a signal level of a first differential signal, which is a differential signal between the first input signal and the second input signal among the first to third input signals, is greater than a first reference signal level to output a first comparison signal, and compares whether the signal level of the first differential signal is greater than a second reference signal level different from the first reference signal level to output a second comparison signal, and a clock data recovering device which recovers a clock signal embedded in the first to third input signals on the basis of the first and second comparison signals to output the recovery clock signal.

An energy-efficient implementation of a WiFi transceiver is proposed in this disclosure. The WiFi transceiver comprises a receive chain comprising a variable receive (Rx) filter circuit and a variable Rx analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit. The receive chain is configured to receive a receive signal during a receive mode of operation, having a receive bandwidth associated therewith and receive a transmit signal associated with a transmit chain of the transceiver during a transmit mode of operation, having a transmit bandwidth associated therewith. The WiFi transceiver further comprises a control circuit configured to dynamically adapt a bandwidth of the variable Rx filter and the variable Rx ADC in the receive chain to the receive bandwidth or to the transmit bandwidth, based on the mode of operation.

Doherty radio frequency (RF) amplifier circuitry includes an input node, an output node, a main amplifier path, and a peaking amplifier path. The main amplifier path is coupled between the input node and the output node and includes a main amplifier. The peaking amplifier path is coupled in parallel with the main amplifier path between the input node and the output node, and includes a peaking amplifier and a peaking variable gain preamplifier between the input node and the peaking amplifier. The peaking variable gain preamplifier is configured to adjust a current provided to the peaking amplifier.

A variable-gain amplifier includes two amplification and attenuation branches, and first and a second resistive elements that are coupled between the two branches. Each branch includes a voltage follower stage and a configurable amplification stage. The voltage follower stages are intended to receive a differential signal and are configured to deliver, via the first resistive element, an intermediate differential current signal. The amplification stages are intended to receive the intermediate differential current signal and a digital control word, and are configured to deliver, via the second resistive element, an output differential voltage signal depending on the value of the digital control word.

A method of operating a radio receiver device comprises receiving a plurality of signals with a plurality of corresponding frequencies; applying respective gains to each of the plurality of signals; and storing the gain applied to each signal and its corresponding frequency. The method comprises subsequently receiving a further signal with a further frequency; and applying a further gain to the further signal. The further gain is determined using at least one of the stored gains according to a difference between the further frequency and at least one of the plurality of corresponding frequencies.

A clamping circuit that may be used to provide efficient and effective voltage clamping in an RF front end. The clamping circuit comprises two series coupled signal path switches and a bypass switch coupled in parallel with the series coupled signal path switches. A diode is coupled from a point between the series coupled signal path switches to a reference potential. In addition, an output selection switch within an RF front end has integrated voltage clamping to more effectively clamp the output voltage from the RF front end. Additional output clamping circuits can be used at various places along a direct gain signal path, along an attenuated gain path and along a bypass path.

A vehicle includes an antenna configured to receive a broadcast signal, an amplifier configured to amplify the broadcast signal, a detector configured to detect an output signal of the amplifier, a variable transformer configured to output a negative feedback signal based on the detected output signal, an auto gain control configured to control an input signal of the amplifier based on the negative feedback signal and a controller configured to control the variable transformer and the auto gain control based on the output signal of the amplifier.