| Commitments and Contingencies - Litigation (Details) | 1 Months Ended | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| May. 16, 2014  patent  claim  plaintiff | Oct. 31, 2015  patent  claim | Feb. 09, 2015  claim | |
| Loss Contingencies [Line Items] | |||
| Number of pending claims | 11 | ||
| CrestaTech Technology Corporation v. MaxLinear, Inc. [Member] | |||
| Loss Contingencies [Line Items] | |||
| Number of respondents | plaintiff | 6 | ||
| Patents allegedly infringed upon | patent | 2 | ||
| Patents found not infringed upon | patent | 2 | ||
| Inter Partes Review by US Patent Office [Member] | |||
| Loss Contingencies [Line Items] | |||
| New claims filed | 4 | ||
| Number of pending claims | 2 | ||
| Claims dismissed | 2 | ||
| Inter Partes Review by US Patent Office v. CrestaTech Patents [Member] | |||
| Loss Contingencies [Line Items] | |||
| Number of pending claims | 6 | 6 | 
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- Definition Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table. No definition available. 
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- Definition Number of claims dismissed. No definition available. 
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- Definition The total number of new claims filed pertaining to a loss contingency during the period. Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef 
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- Definition Number of plaintiffs that have filed claims pertaining to a loss contingency. No definition available. 
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- Definition Number of another entity's patents that the entity has allegedly infringed. No definition available. 
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- Definition Number of another entity's patents that the entity was found not to have infringed. No definition available. 
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- Definition Number of pending claims pertaining to a loss contingency. Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef 
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