Patent ID: 8412118

Claim:
An integrated circuit radio transceiver, comprising: baseband processor configured for processing ingoing and outgoing digital communication signals; transmitter front end operable to transmit outgoing radio frequency signals based upon the outgoing digital communication signals; receiver front end operable to produce the ingoing digital communication signals based upon received ingoing RF signals, the receiver front end further comprising a plurality of parallel ingoing signal paths, each parallel ingoing signal path including: amplification circuitry configured for amplifying an ingoing radio frequency signal; and mixing circuitry configured for down-converting the ingoing radio frequency signal; first switching block operable to select an output of one of the plurality of parallel ingoing signal paths to produce an ingoing signal; a common receive path operably disposed to receive the selected ingoing signal from the first switching block, the common receive path further including: a low pass filter; first, second and third variable gain amplifiers disposed substantially in series with the low pass filter, wherein at least the first variable gain amplifier is upstream of the low pass filter; and first, second and third received signal strength indicator blocks configured for producing a corresponding received signal strength indication of an analog signal from first, second and third receive signal path nodes in the common receive signal path, wherein the first and second receive signal path nodes are upstream of the low pass filter and disposed on opposite sides of the first variable gain amplifier, in which the first and second received signal strength indicator blocks are coupled to corresponding first and second receive signal path nodes and in which the first and second received signal strength indicator blocks include circuitry to reduce a DC offset; and second switching block operable to selectably couple an output of one of the first, second or third signal strength indicator block to the baseband processor.