Polyband tuner overcomes regional differences: News from Mirics Semiconductor

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Mirics Semiconductor has partnered with Jazz Semiconductor to deliver its breakthrough device, the MSI001, polyband tuner for mobile digital broadcast reception. Mirics designed its product using Jazz Semiconductor's high-volume silicon germanium BiCMOS (SiGe BiCMOS) process to develop a high performance, low power consumption mobile broadcast receiver. Mirics breakthrough technology enables OEMs to design a single platform for mobile TV and radio, independent of standards or regional differences.

The MSI001 is a universal broadcast receiver that enables designers of mobile phones, portable media players, and PDAs to easily add mobile broadcast reception to support any global standard.

Samples of the MSI001, manufactured in the first quarter of this year, were based on first-pass silicon from Jazz.

By leveraging SBC35, Jazz Semiconductor's 0.35um SiGe BiCMOS process platform, and using its sophisticated analogue and RF design flow and modelling infrastructure, Mirics engineers were able to achieve results quickly and achieve functional, first-pass silicon.

Jazz Semiconductor's SBC35 is a low-power, cost-effective solution for consumer, wireless, and networking applications.

Designers have the flexibility of using any combination of three bipolar (NPN) transistors, each of which provides a different optimisation for power and speed.

Offering a transistor with a peak Ft of 62GHz, SBC35 is a clear choice for innovative, high-performance applications.

In addition to the three bipolar (NPN) transistor types, SBC35 also includes 3.3V CMOS, deep trench isolation, lateral PNP transistors, MIM and MIS capacitors, high-performance varactors, poly and nwell resistors, and high-Q inductors.

Other available SBC35 options include a triple-well, high performance vertical PNP, three or four layers of metal, and a thick top-metal.

SBC35 is part of Jazz's portfolio of SiGe technology targeting next generation wireless, consumer, and wireline products that includes a very high performance 0.18um node (SBC18) supporting speeds of up to 200GHz and a recently announced ultra low power 0.13um node (SBL13) supporting very high levels of integration.

The MSI001 chip is highly price competitive and the most technically advanced product of its type.

The poly-band tuner is capable of receiving a vast range of digital broadcast standards including DVB-H, T-DMB, ISDB-T, DAB-IP, MediaFlo, DAB, DRM and AM/FM, solving the fragmentation problem faced by manufacturers that want to offer all these capabilities in one device.

Mirics also designed the chip to be configured for the reception of other standards, or unknown future standards, ie the forthcoming Chinese MDTV standards, without any cost or performance penalty.

The device provides coverage for all major broadcast bands ranging from 100kHz to1.9GHz (covering LW/MW/SW, L-Band and VHF Bands II, III, and UHF Bands IV and V).

MSI001 also has the lowest power consumption of any tuner announced to date, for instance using a mere 46mA in continuous DVB-H operation in the L-Band.

'By utilising Jazz's 0.35um SiGe BiCMOS process, the production cycle for the MSI001 was fast and easy to facilitate, an important factor in the fast growing mobile broadcast receiver market', said Simon Atkinson, CEO of Mirics.

'The combination of Jazz's advanced process technology and design flow support, with our strong silicon development team and leading RF technology, enabled us to develop a tuner that is unmatched in performance and power consumption and we are able to offer it at a very competitive price'.

'Our 0.35um SiGe BiCMOS process has been helping our customers achieve the demanding performance specifications and cost targets of wireless and wireline transceivers and is now being increasingly adopted for tuner applications', said Marco Racanelli, Vice President of Technology and Engineering at Jazz Semiconductor.

'In addition to providing strong performance, its proven design environment is helping customers achieve first pass success in these demanding applications, speeding their time to market'.

Mirics' MSI001 chip is available now, with prices starting from US $3.50 (10,000 units).

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Polyband tuner overcomes regional differences

Breakthrough technology enables OEMs to design a single platform for mobile TV and radio, independent of standards or regional differences.