US Patent 7652464 RF power sensor with chopping amplifier

An RF power detector having a wide dynamic range may comprise a chopping amplifier and is configured to detect pulsed high frequency RF signals. The chopping amplifier controlled by a bias current regulator amplifies and chops an RF signal by periodically enabling and disabling the amplifier according to a system clock. The chopped high frequency RF signal feeds a Schottky diode biased to operate in the square law region for weak signals. The Schottky diode voltage is tapped and high pass filtered. The voltage drives a logarithmic and linear converter. The converter outputs are summed to produce an output voltage that is a repeatable and stable monotonically increasing function of the RF power.