Satellite TV Tuner Simplifies Digital TV Receiver Design

Sept. 15, 2005

Combine the ZL10039 single-chip satellite tuner with the ZL10313 satellite demodulator chip, and you get an integrated and cost-effective front-end solution for free-to-air (FTA) satellite digital TV receivers and set-top boxes. Developed by Zarlink

Dave Bursky

Developed by Zarlink Semiconductor, the ZL10039 direct-conversion tuner chip includes a high-performance low-noise amplifier (LNA), eliminating the need for additional RF circuitry. The chip also can handle 1 to 45 Msymbols/s for digital video broadcast satellite (DVB-S), digital satellite systems (DSS), and eight-phase shift keying (8PSK) receiver systems.

The ZL10039's integrated RF loop-through and power-and-forget voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) eliminate the need for time-consuming VCO calibration. Zarlink's ZLE10541 full reference design combines the ZL10039 tuner and ZL10313 demodulator.

Available features include a high-speed blind-scan capability in which an on-chip hard-wired controller enables the chip to achieve ultra-fast channel scanning with little intervention from an external processor. The two-chip subsystem consumes less than 1 W when operating. A sleep mode reduces the power drain to less than 1 mA. Contact the company for volume pricing.

Zarlink Semiconductor Inc.
http://products.zarlink.com/profiles/zl10039

About the Author

Dave Bursky | Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.