Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
RADIO-FREQUENCY SWITCHES WITH DISTORTER ARMS AND VOLTAGE BUFFERS

Abstract:

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for reducing intermodulation distortion (IMD) in switches using distorter circuits and voltage buffers. A switch circuit can include a switch arm with a stack of field-effect transistors (FETs), a distorter arm that is configured to act as a compensation circuit to compensate for non-linearities in the switch arm, and a voltage buffer that is configured to protect the distorter arm from large voltage swings when transitioning between ON and OFF states. The gate width of the distorter arm can be orders of magnitude smaller than the gate widths of the switch FETs. The gate width of the voltage buffer FETs can be larger than the distorter arm and smaller than the switch arm. The distorter arm is configured to compensate for the non-linearity effect generated by the switch arm.