Patent ID: 6980056

Claim:
An attenuator comprising; a first stage comprising: a first operational amplifier; a tapped resistor having an input for receiving input data, an output coupled to an output of said first operational amplifier, and a plurality of taps for selectively presenting a sequence of voltages to a noninverting input of said first operational amplifier, each of said sequence of voltages corresponding to an attenuation step, said first stage in response to said sequence of voltages stepping an attenuation produced by said attenuator from an intermediate value to a predetermined ending value; and a second stage comprising: a second operational amplifier; a tapped resistor having an input for receiving analog data from said first stage, an output coupled to an output of said second operational amplifier, and a plurality of taps for selectively presenting a sequence of voltages to a noninverting input of said second operational amplifier, each of said sequence of voltages corresponding to an attenuation step, said second stage stepping said attenuation for a predetermined starting value to said intermediate value.