Demodulator Cuts Component Count

Claiming to be the industry's first device to integrate a zero-IF tuner, multi-standard demodulator, and a forward error correction block in a single CMOS chip, the STV0399 replaces two or more ICs on the circuit board, reducing component count and system cost. This integrated chip includes a full range frequency synthesizer, a baseband gain control stage, and all baseband filters. Built with a 0.18µ CMOS process, the device is also said to be the industry's most complete digital satellite, front-end solution. Accepting a 950 to 2,200 MHz RF input, the device outputs an MPEG transport stream. The output can then be seamlessly connected to the company's set-top decoder ICs. Other features include support for channel data rates up to 100 Mb/s and symbol frequency rates from 1 to 45 Msymbols/s. Pricing is $8 each/500,000.