Monolithic programmable attenuator

A radio frequency circuit having an input terminal and an output terminal comprising:

• a pair of field effect transistors, each transistor having drain, source and gate electrodes, with a first one of such drain and source electrodes of a first one of such pair of transistors being electrically coupled to the input terminal, a first one of such drain and source electrodes of a second one of the pair of transistors being electrically coupled to the output terminal, and the remaining one of drain and source electrodes of each one of the pair of transistors being electrically coupled at a common point;
• a third field effect transistor having a drain, source and gate electrodes with first one of such drain and source electrodes being electrically coupled with the aforementioned pair of transistors at the common point and the remaining one of such drain and source electrodes being electrically coupled to a reference potential;
• each field effect transistor having at least one pair of drain and source contacts disposed on a corresponding pair of drain and source regions and coupled to respective ones of the drain and source electrodes, and at least one gate contact disposed on a corresponding gate region between said pair of drain and source contacts;
• and
• wherein a selected portion of the gate region of each field effect transistor is physically separated from the gate contact having the gate electrode attached thereto.