Patent ID: 7863964

Claim:
A radio frequency semiconductor switching device suitable for driving electronic circuits of the type including depletion mode MESFET, pHemt, or JFET elements formed on a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) structure comprising: a switching circuit element including at least four electronic semiconductor component switching units with each switching unit adapted for receiving a gate input signal at a gate electrode of the semiconductor switching units; a level shift circuit generating a biasing voltage signal electrically communicating with the gate electrodes of the switching units for biasing the gate electrodes of the switching units where such bias voltage swings positive with respect to ground by an amount determined by an on MMIC diode to bias the switching units into a lower loss state; the level shift circuit being responsive to an externally provided control signal; the semiconductor switching units being formed into a grouping of at least a first and a second set of interconnected semiconductor switching units with each set of interconnected semiconductor switching units having respective gate electrodes of at least two of the interconnected switching units in the set of interconnected switching units being electrically connected with an output source of the level shift circuit; and, both the switching units and the level shift circuit being formed on the MMIC structure.