Techniques to reduce the power consumption of an RF log-amp detector

摘要

An embodiment of the present invention provides an RF log-amp detector, comprising a pre-amplifer at the input of the RF log-amp detector, a plurality of limiters with variable gain connected to the pre-amplifier, wherein the gain of the preamplifier is set to its minimum and the dynamic range is expanded by modifying the amplification gain of the plurality of limiters, thereby increasing the dynamic range and reducing accuracy, after which a coarse measurement of a power level is taken and wherein the RF log-amp detector then defines which pre-amplification level is required based on the course measurement to bring the signal at the output of the preamp within an optimum dynamic range of the log-amp and wherein the pre-amplification gain is then set while the gain of the plurality of limiters are set to their minimum value with the RF log-amp then performing a second measurement with higher accuracy and calculating the final measurement from fine measurements and the pre-amplification gain.