Switch with gate or body connected linearizer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12375078-B2
Application number	US-202016893188-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 4, 2020
Priority date	Jun 5, 2019
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

Circuits, systems, and methods to compensate for non-linearities associated with a switching circuit are discussed herein. For example, a switch circuit can include a switch arm and a linearizer arm. The switch arm can have a first transistor connected between an input node and an output node. The switch arm can be configured to receive a radio-frequency signal. The linearizer arm can have a second transistor connected to at least one of a gate or a body of the first transistor. The linearizer arm can be configured to compensate a non-linearity effect generated by the switch arm.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A radio-frequency switch comprising:
a switch arm having a first transistor connected between an input node and an output node, the switch arm configured to selectively pass a radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node; and
a linearizer arm having a second transistor that includes a first terminal connected to at least one of a gate or a body of the first transistor and without connecting to the input node and the output node, a second terminal connected to a ground node and without connecting to the input node and the output node, and a gate connected to a first biasing component, the linearizer arm including a resistor connected between the second transistor and the first transistor, the linearizer arm configured to compensate a non-linearity effect generated by the switch arm by generating a first third-order distortion product, the switch arm being configured to generate a second third-order distortion product that is substantially opposite in phase to the first third-order distortion product, each of the first terminal and the second terminal comprising a source, drain, emitter, or collector, the first biasing component being configured to provide voltage to bias the second transistor, a width of the gate of the first transistor is larger than 1 mm and a width of the gate of the second transistor is smaller than 10 μm.

2. The radio-frequency switch of claim 1 wherein the first transistor includes a plurality of transistors connected in series to form a stack, and the linearizer arm is connected to each of the plurality of transistors.

3. The radio-frequency switch of claim 2 wherein the plurality of transistors includes at least ten transistors.

4. The radio-frequency switch of claim 2 wherein the width of the gate of the first transistor is based at least in part on a number of the plurality of transistors in the stack.

5. The radio-frequency switch of claim 1 wherein the resistor has a resistance that is larger than a threshold.

6. The radio-frequency switch of claim 1 wherein the linearizer arm is connected to the gate of the first transistor.

7. The radio-frequency switch of claim 6 wherein the linearizer arm includes (i) the first biasing component and (ii) a second biasing component connected to a source of the second transistor, the linearizer arm being configured to control the first transistor to enable or disable passage of the radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node.

8. The radio-frequency switch of claim 6 wherein the linearizer arm is configured to control the first transistor to enable or disable passage of the radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node.

9. The radio-frequency switch of claim 8 wherein the linearizer arm is configured to enable passage of the radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node by controlling the second transistor to be in an on state.

10. The radio-frequency switch of claim 8 wherein the linearizer arm is configured to disable passage of the radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node by controlling the second transistor to be in an off state.

11. The radio-frequency switch of claim 1 wherein the linearizer arm is connected to the body of the first transistor.

12. The radio-frequency switch of claim 1 wherein the first transistor and the second transistor are each implemented as a field-effect transistor.

13. A radio-frequency switch comprising:
an input node and an output node;
a signal path including a first transistor connected between the input node and the output node, the first transistor being controllable to enable or disable passage of a radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node; and
a linearizer arm including a second transistor that includes a first element connected to at least one of a gate or a body of the first transistor and without being connected to the first transistor in another manner, a second element connected to a ground node, and a gate connected to a biasing component, the first element being a source, drain, emitter, or collector, the linearizer arm being configured to compensate a non-linear effect by generating a first third-order distortion product that is substantially opposite in phase to a second third-order distortion product that is generated by the signal path, the biasing component being configured to provide voltage to bias the second transistor, a width of the gate of the first transistor is larger than 1 mm and a width of the gate of the second transistor is smaller than 10 μm.

14. The radio-frequency switch of claim 13 wherein the linearizer arm is connected to the gate of the first transistor and the linearizer arm is configured to control the first transistor to enable or disable passage of the radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node.

15. The radio-frequency switch of claim 13 wherein the first transistor includes a plurality of transistors connected in series to form a stack, and the linearizer arm is connected to each of the plurality of transistors.

16. The radio-frequency switch of claim 13 wherein the linearizer arm is connected to the gate of the first transistor.

17. A radio-frequency module comprising:
a packaging substrate to receive a plurality of components; and
a semiconductor die mounted on the packaging substrate, the semiconductor die including a radio-frequency switch having a switch arm and a linearizer arm, the switch arm having a first transistor connected between an input node and an output node, the switch arm configured to selectively pass a radio-frequency signal from the input node to the output node, the linearizer arm having a second transistor that includes a first element connected to at least one of a gate or a body of the first transistor and without being connected to the first transistor in another manner, a second element connected to a ground node, and a gate connected to a biasing component, the first element being a source, drain, emitter, or collector, the linearizer arm configured to compensate a non-linearity effect generated by the switch arm by generating a first third-order distortion product, the switch arm being configured to generate a second third-order distortion product that is substantially opposite in phase to the first third-order distortion product, a width of the gate of the first transistor is larger than 1 mm and a width of the gate of the second transistor is smaller than 10 μm.

18. The radio-frequency switch of claim 1 wherein the linearizer arm is configured to reduce third-order distortion by more than 25 dBm while substantially maintaining a signal strength of the radio-frequency signal.

19. The radio-frequency module of claim 17 wherein the first transistor includes a plurality of transistors connected in series to form a stack, and the linearizer arm is connected to each of the plurality of transistors.

20. The radio-frequency module of claim 17 wherein the linearizer arm is connected to the gate of the first transistor.

Assignees

• Skyworks Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Zhu Yu
• Klimashov Oleksiy
• Mason Jerod F
• Fuh Hanching
• Bartle Dylan Charles
• Dicarlo Paul T

Classifications

• H03K17/6871

  the output circuit comprising more than one controlled field-effect transistor · CPC title

• H03K17/145

  in field-effect transistor switches · CPC title

• H04B1/44

  Transmit/receive switching · CPC title

• H04B1/006

  using switches for selecting the desired band (H04B1/0057 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H03K2217/0018

  Special modifications or use of the back gate voltage of a FET · CPC title