Patent ID: 8165544

Claim:
A radio frequency (RF) front-end configured to share transmissions and receptions of Bluetooth signals and WLAN signals, the RF front-end comprising: a first path coupled between an antenna and a transceiver, the first path dedicated to transmissions of the WLAN signals; a second path coupled between the antenna and the transceiver, the second path dedicated to simultaneous receptions of the Bluetooth signals and the WLAN signals, wherein: the second path comprises an amplifier coupled between the antenna and a divider, the divider having a WLAN receive output path and a Bluetooth receive output path coupled to the transceiver, the amplifier (i) is shared by the Bluetooth signals and the WLAN signals received from the antenna to amplify the Bluetooth signals and the WLAN signals to compensate for a loss of signal strength and (ii) outputs amplified Bluetooth signals and WLAN signals, and the divider splits the amplified Bluetooth signals and WLAN signals onto a WLAN receive path and a Bluetooth receive path; a third path coupled between the antenna and the transceiver, the third path dedicated to: transmissions only of the Bluetooth signals when a WLAN link is active; and transmissions and receptions of the Bluetooth signals when the WLAN link is active and in a power save state, and when the WLAN link is inactive; and a switch coupled between to the antenna and the first path, the second path, and the third path to control which of the first path, the second path, and the third path to connect to the antenna wherein the amplifier receives a bypass signal originating from the transceiver, and wherein the bypass signal causes the Bluetooth signals and WLAN signals to pass through the amplifier without amplification when the second path is selected, but no gain is required.