Patent ID: 8923791

Claim:
An RFID transponder having an analog front end receiver comprising: an attenuator coupled to receive an RF-signal from an antenna and to attenuate the RF-signal; an amplifier having a fixed amplifier gain and being coupled to receive and to amplify the attenuated RF-signal; a control unit coupled to the attenuator control a gain of the attenuator, the control unit being configured to control the attenuator gain in response to a level of the amplified RF-signal and to have a plurality of predetermined states causing the attenuator to increase (step-up) or to decrease (step-down) its gain by a predefined step size, wherein the step size of a step-up is equal to or smaller than the step size of a step-down; and the control unit being configured to switch, upon reaching or exceeding a predefined threshold value, from a first state to a second state having a smaller step size and causing the attenuator to change the gain such that the slope of the RF signal inverts and to switch, upon reaching the predefined threshold again, to a third state causing the attenuator to change a prefix of the gain.