Patent ID: 8724739

Claim:
A phase shifter-attenuator system, comprising: (A) a quadrature section for converting an input signal into a corresponding pair of quadrature signals with each one pair of quadrature signals having an in-phase component and an out-of-phase component; (B) a controller for producing a digital word representative of a predetermined phase shift and attenuation provided to the input signal; (C) a phase shifter-attenuator section fed by the produced digital word, comprising: a pair of quadrature channels, each one of the channels being fed a corresponding one of the pair of quadrature signals, each one of such channels having: a plurality of amplifiers, each one the amplifiers having a different gain, each one of the amplifiers being fed by the corresponding one of the pair of quadrature signals fed to such one of the channels, the amplifiers in such one of the channels being coupled to an output node; (D) wherein the phase shifter-attenuator section provides one of a plurality combinations of phase shift-attenuation states to the input signal selectively in accordance with one portion of the produced digital word, the combinations being distributed over a selected range of four quadrants of a phase shift-attenuation states array, the range being selected in accordance with a second portion of the digital word.