Munich: German chip maker, Infineon, has developed high performance, low power tuner ICs designed for portable applications like laptops, USB dongles and PDAs.
Infineon believes that both its new ICs are the industry’s first single conversion tuners operating at a supply voltage as low as 3V, thereby halving power consumption and heat dissipation.
To meet the increasing space constraints of portable end-user devices, the TUA6041 and TUA6045 devices integrate the RF (Radio Frequency) and IF (Intermediate Frequency) functions in one chip improving system reliability and decreasing the footprint area of the tuner IC by around 50% to 49 mm2.
According to a report from market research firm Gartner Dataquest, shipments of handheld computers, video game handhelds and laptops are expected to grow from approximately 97 million units in 2005 to approximately 145 million units in 2010.
Both tuner ICs address multiple analog and digital TV standards (PAL, SECAM, NTSC, DVB-C, DVB-T, T-DMB, DAB, ISDB-T and ATSC.
Operating at a supply voltage from 5.5V to 3V allows manufacturers of tuners and end-user equipment to adjust the tuner IC according to the system’s power requirements. Power consumption of the end-user equipment is further reduced thanks to the stand-by mode function of the tuner IC while a selectable narrow or wide band Automatic Gain Control (AGC) improves the TV reception quality. In addition to manual alignment, the TUA6041 features automatic digital alignment by the means of software during basic set-up in the production process—a feature addressing mainly end-user equipment manufacturers as it avoids the manual alignment in their manufacturing process.
Samples of the TUA6041 and TUA6045 are available now. Volume production is planned for the end of 2005.