Patent ID: 8890598

Claim:
An attenuator comprising: an input terminal; an output terminal; a voltage reference terminal; a first attenuation segment coupled with the input terminal and the output terminal; a second attenuation segment coupled with the first attenuation segment and the voltage reference terminal; a first switch and a second switch coupled with the input terminal and the output terminal in parallel with the first attenuation segment, wherein a first voltage control terminal is coupled with the first switch and a second voltage control terminal is coupled with the second switch; and a third switch coupled with the second attenuation segment in series, wherein a third voltage control terminal is coupled with the third switch, wherein the first switch, second switch, and third switch are configured to receive a voltage ramp control signal via respective first voltage control terminal, second voltage control terminal, and third voltage control terminal to achieve attenuation levels between a maximum attenuation and a minimum attenuation.