Patent ID: 8175541

Claim:
A front end circuit for coupling an antenna to a radio frequency (RF) transceiver including a transmit line, a receive line, a first enable line, and a second enable line, the front end circuit comprising: an antenna port; a power amplifier with a signal output, a signal input coupled to the transmit line of the transceiver and a first control circuit coupled to the first enable line of the transceiver, a first voltage applied to the first control circuit activating and setting a bias point of the power amplifier; a low noise amplifier with a signal input, a signal output coupled to the receive line of the transceiver and a second control circuit coupled to the second enable line of the transceiver, a second voltage applied to the second control circuit activating and setting a bias point of the low noise amplifier; and a matching network connected to the antenna port, the signal output of the power amplifier and the signal input of the low noise amplifier, the signal output of the power amplifier and the signal input of the low noise amplifier being common; wherein the matching network includes a first network segment with which the power amplifier is impedance matched to the antenna, and a second network segment in combination with the first network segment with which the low noise amplifier is impedance matched to the antenna, a junction between the power amplifier and the first network segment having a resistive component of an impedance less than or equal to a transistor load resistance corresponding to a predetermined 1 decibel compression point at a defined bias voltage.