Radiofrequency power limiter, and associated radiofrequency emitter and/or receiver chain and low-noise amplifying stage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9755586-B2
Application number	US-201415035561-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 18, 2014
Priority date	Nov 18, 2013
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

This radiofrequency power limiter includes at least one transistor, a drain of the transistor being directly connected to a mesh connecting an input to an output of the limiter, a source of the transistor being connected to a common reference potential, and a gate of the transistor being connected to a common control potential. The transistor is not biased between its drain and its source during operation of the limiter.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A radiofrequency power limiter comprises:
at least one transistor,
a drain of said transistor being directly connected to a mesh connecting an input and an output of the limiter,
a source of said transistor being connected to a common reference potential, and
a gate of said transistor being connected to a common control potential (Voff), said transistor not being biased between its drain and its source during the operation of the limiter,
wherein the radiofrequency power limiter further comprises at least first and second transistors, and
wherein the mesh connecting the input and the output of the radiofrequency power limiter comprises, between the connection nodes of the drains of the first and second transistors, an intermediate inductor.

2. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 1 , wherein the mesh connecting the input to the output of the limiter comprises at least one of:
an input inductor between the input of the limiter and a connection node of the drain of an upstream transistor; and
an output inductor between a connection node of the drain of a downstream transistor from among said at least one transistor and the output of the limiter.

3. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 1 , wherein the gate of said transistor is connected to the common command potential (Voff), via a protection resistor.

4. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 1 , wherein the drain of said transistor is directly connected to the mesh connecting the input and the output of the limiter.

5. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 1 , wherein the source of said transistor is directly connected to the reference potential.

6. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 1 , wherein the control potential (Voff) corresponds to a first terminal of a voltage source, the other terminal of the voltage source being connected to said reference potential.

7. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 6 , wherein the voltage source is controlled by an adapted control signal.

8. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 1 , wherein said transistor is a field effect transistor.

9. The radiofrequency power limiter according to claim 1 being made in a power technology, notably a technology based on gallium nitride.

10. A component of the low noise amplifier type, integrating a limiter according to claim 1 .

11. A chain for transmitting or receiving radiofrequency signals including a limiter according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Plaze Jean-Philippe
• Petit Vincent
• Mallet-Guy Benoît

Classifications

• H03F2200/451

  the amplifier being a radio frequency amplifier · CPC title

• H03F3/19

  with semiconductor devices only · CPC title

• H03F2200/444

  Diode used as protection means in an amplifier, e.g. as a limiter or as a switch · CPC title

• H03G11/02

  by means of diodes ({H03G11/008, } H03G11/04, H03G11/06, H03G11/08 take precedence) · CPC title

• H03F1/52 Primary

  Circuit arrangements for protecting such amplifiers {(monitoring arrangements G01R31/28; increasing reliability in communication systems, e.g. using redundancy H04B1/74)} · CPC title