Product category:
Reference Designs
News Release from: Zarlink Semiconductor | Subject: ZLE10532 reference design
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 March 2004
Speedy route to digital satellite
set-top boxes
Zarlink Semiconductor has a production-ready blueprint for a complete front-end subsystem used in digital satellite STBs.
Zarlink Semiconductor has a production-ready blueprint for a complete front-end subsystem used in digital satellite STBs Combining a new high-performance satellite tuner with an industry-leading demodulator, the ZLE10532 reference design meets the growing need for highly integrated RF chips in advanced digital TV products
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 7 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Zarlink's RF chips for digital satellite TV are used in STBs worldwide, in both "free-to-air" and subscriber-based digital satellite systems.
In China, one of the fastest growing markets for digital satellite STBs, 70% of manufacturers already use Zarlink tuners, according to company research.
To lower their costs and improve time-to-market, consumer electronics manufacturers want a "fit and forget" front-end tuner and demodulator solution that reduces external component costs and time-consuming in-house design work.
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Zarlink's ZLE10532 reference design combines the new ZL10036 tuner and proven ZL10312 demodulator to provide a complete motherboard-based RF subsystem for tuning, scanning, decoding, and demodulating digital satellite TV signals.
Manufacturers are now evaluating the ZLE10532 reference design for use in next-generation STBs.
"Manufacturers need proven, cost-effective RF front-ends that can be placed on the motherboard and require minimal system integration", said Bob Ferreira, Product Line Director, Consumer Communications, Zarlink Semiconductor.
"Our production-ready design is simple to implement, and by addressing cost, design and performance issues, makes it easy for manufacturers to design consumer-friendly STBs".
The ZL10036 device is a single-chip wideband direct conversion tuner that supports QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying) modulation schemes.
With alignment-free performance, the tuner provides all the necessary RF-to-digital signal conversion required for DSS and 1-45Msymbol/s DVB-S receiver systems.
Competing tuner products add design, bill of material, and assembly costs because they require external coil-based components that must be adjusted during manufacture.
The ZL10036 tuner also features a "power and forget" VCO (voltage controlled oscillator), eliminating the need for time-consuming VCO calibration required by some competitive products.
Zarlink's ZLE10532 reference design combines the ZL10036 tuner with the ZL10312 device, the industry's fastest-scanning, lowest-power channel demodulator.
The reference design can be used in most manufacturing processes, allowing consumer electronics companies to quickly produce compact, easy-to-use satellite STBs.
The ZL10312 demodulator supports QPSK and BPSK (bipolar phase shift keying) modulation schemes, using advanced filters to detect and decode satellite channels without external components.
A unique, on-chip hard-wired controller enables the ZL10312 chip to achieve ultra-fast channel scanning capability with little intervention from an external processor, which minimises software overhead.
With Zarlink's ZLE10532 reference design, manufacturers can market easy-to-use satellite STBs.
On setup, the ZL10312 demodulator automatically scans the complete satellite broadcast band and locks onto TV channels in minutes - the industry's fastest auto-scan performance.
With Zarlink's integrated motherboard-based front-end design replacing discrete tuner devices and external circuitry, manufacturers can produce streamlined STBs that are smaller than a videocassette case.
Zarlink's two-chip RF subsystem design consumes less than 1.5W of power when in full operation, with an integrated sleep pin that reduces power consumption 1000-fold in stand-by mode.
As STBs shrink in size, heat-sensitive RF tuner and demodulator chips are packed into smaller areas.
By minimising heat generation, the ZLE10532 reference design eliminates design concerns for heat-sensitive components and improves RF performance and field reliability.
Low power consumption also helps electronics manufacturers design STBs that meet US Environmental Protection Energy Star requirements and other international low-power initiatives.
The ZL10036 satellite tuner chip is now in full production.
The ZLE10532 reference design, consisting of tuner, RF loop through and QPSK demodulator, is available to qualified customers.
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