A novel fully integrated antenna switch for wireless systems

A novel RF switch for single antenna time division multiplexing systems, based on the boot-strapped inductor approach is presented. It allows one to wire on-chip the output of the power amplifier and the input of the low noise amplifier directly to the antenna. The approach does not require any external components, it gives better performance and lower cost with respect to the front-end RF switches which commonly use PIN diodes as switching elements and it allows one to step towards fully integrated transceiver solutions. The operating principle is demonstrated, the most representative performances are summarized and a preliminary estimation of the yield has been obtained by means of Monte Carlo simulations.

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