RF Tuner Chip Marries TV, Mobile Devices

Intended for the Japanese mobile TV broadcast standard, the MAX2160 is a complete RF tuner IC. It can be integrated into portable devices such as cellular phones and PDAs that will receive digital TV broadcasts based on the Japanese ISDB-T single segment broadcast standard. Excluding the front-end filter and crystal, the device integrates all components to complete the interface from a mobile UHF antenna to the digital baseband demodulator IC. Noise figure (typical) is 3.5 dB, eliminating the need for an external LNA. The device can receive weak mobile TV signals in the presence of strong adjacent analog or digital terrestrial TV transmissions. For battery-powered equipment, the device consumes less than 125 mW of continuous power. It is specified for the extended industrial temperature range (-408 to 858C) and comes in a 40-pin thin QFN package measuring 6 mm x 6 mm. Pricing starts at $4 each/100,000. MAXIM INTEGRATED PRODUCTS, Sunnyvale, CA. (800) 998-8800.