Line Driver Boosts Performance Of Cable Modems

Said to be the industry's highest-performance upstream line driver for broadband cable modems and made using the company's low-power BiCom-II process, the THS6101 chip is designed to yield a low third-harmonic distortion of -64 dB at 29.3 MHz, an output power level of +56 dBmV, and a noise level of -47 dBmV at its minimum gain and symbol rates. These features are said to exceed the data over cable system interface specification (DOCSIS) 1.1 cable modem requirements.
The IC operates from a single 5V power supply and is said to offer OEMs considerable flexibility in designing DOCSIS-compliant modem systems. Packaged in a thermally enhanced PowerPad 24-pin TSSOP, the upstream line driver costs $3.55 each/1,000.