Product category:
Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: Zarlink Semiconductor | Subject: ZL10354
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 12 September 2005
Demodulator's diversity is key to signal
quality
Zarlink Semiconductor has launched its latest terrestrial demodulator for PC-TV, portable and handheld digital television equipment.
Zarlink Semiconductor has launched its latest terrestrial demodulator for PC-TV, portable and handheld digital television equipment The ZL10354 device offers a unique "diversity-enabled" MRC (maximum ratio combining) architecture that allows portable TV equipment manufacturers to link two or more chips together to achieve superior signal quality in even the most challenging operating conditions
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 7 Feb 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Access Devices, a manufacturer of digital television equipment, is designing the ZL10354 into its new PC-TV products.
The new mobile products target the European and Asian terrestrial markets, where free-to-air digital TV, radio, and interactive multimedia services are fueling demand for portable DVB-T electronics products.
"By using Zarlink's new demodulator, we improve access for customers who previously could not take full advantage of portable terrestrial DTV services", said Anthony Allison, Head of Marketing for Access Devices.
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"With the high-quality signal reception these chips deliver, we can now increase coverage area - even to remote and rugged signal terrains - and open the market to new consumers".
The ZL10354 demodulator chip combines the industry's lowest power and smallest package with unique diversity-enabled performance to help meet the distinct design challenges posed by portable TV equipment.
Small antenna size is a key requirement for some portable PC and handheld TV devices, and may compromise signal quality.
Measuring just 7 x 7mm - half the size of most competing devices - the diversity-enabled ZL10354 chip enables designers to easily link two or more demodulators together to achieve higher reception quality, while meeting strict space and power constraints.
Zarlink's unique diversity-enabled MRC design allows two or more ZL10354 demodulators to be linked together via a simple interchip bus that also manages the diversity signal control.
This bus is cascaded from chip to chip, adding signal quality improvement at each stage.
Two devices deliver a sufficient improvement for most applications, and consume less power than most diversity alternatives due to the low power consumption of the ZL10354 demodulator - less than 300mW in a typical application.
The ZL10354 demodulator fully complies with the stringent NorDig Unified 1.0.2 and other global terrestrial DTV standards.
The device includes an integrated digital IF filter that eliminates the need for switched bandwidth SAW filters in the tuner design.
The chip also contains an RF signal strength indicator, allowing download and reading of the TV signal strength directly at the receiver box.
The ZL10354 demodulator chip is pin and feature-compatible with the recently introduced ZL10353 and ZL10355 demodulators.
All Zarlink demodulators feature a very high-speed "blind scan and auto re-acquisition" function, built on a hardware-based state machine that automatically scans the entire broadcast band much faster than software-based channel-scanning algorithms.
Zarlink's new demodulator is fully supported with a comprehensive evaluation system that includes TNIM (terrestrial network interface module) reference designs, evaluation software, PC interface and device drivers.
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