Single-chip receiver for mobiles handles TV and radio

Mirics Semiconductor’s MS1001 (diagram) is an RF tuner IC that the start-up company describes as a “poly-band” device for mobile digital broadcast reception. While several companies have recently made announcements that focus on the mobile TV sector, Mirics says that its chip has much wider applicability, covering multiple broadcast standards, including DVB-H, T-DMB, ISDB-T, DAB-IP, MediaFlo, DAB, DRM and conventional AM/FM. The chip covers broadcast bands ranging from 100 kHz to 1.9 GHz. The primary target market is the mobile phone¡ªthe company cites forecasts that by 2009, some 20% of all phones will have mobile TV, but a much higher proportion will have radio capability¡ªand the fraction that does have TV will encompass numerous different standards. Mirics aims to provide the receiver function for TV and radio, at the same cost and power level as FM radio alone. The company is revealing relatively few details of the architecture of its mixed-signal chip: all signal processing is analogue, and the chip reconfigures and reconnects its on-chip functional blocks in response to external commands, depending on the band and signal type. This re-configuration extends to the basic architecture of the receiver function¡ªin some cases, the company says, the receiver will use a direct-conversion (zero-IF) layout: in others, it will be a conventional heterodyne architecture. The MS1001 has five RF inputs with individual on-chip LNAs, covering LW/MW/SW; VHF; Band III; Band IV/V; and L-Band III. It yields quadrature output signals, and to control its configuration (which you can change dynamically) there is 3-wire serial digital port. As well as providing a single receiver chip for all bands (the only signal type that the chip will not handle is conventional analogue broadcast TV) Mirics asserts that its product is the cheapest and lowest power device available, at $3.50 (10,000) and a current demand of 46 mA for continuous DVB-H operation in L-Band. Mirics aims to further reduce the cost to make the device competitive with chips that provide the FM function alone, and to exploit mixed-signal capability to add a flexible on-chip digital demodulation capability.