Samsung Announces New Single-Chip Front-End Receiver

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
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SEOUL — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, today unveiled the industry’s first 65 nanometer (nm) channel decoder RF system-on-chip (SoC), the S3C4F71, at the sixth annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum held at the Westin Taipei Hotel. Targeted specifically at China’s mobile TV broadcasting market, this new device will enable consumers to enjoy real-time news, sports, weather forecasts, and live entertainment via their mobile handheld devices.

“The 2006 Beijing Summer Olympics provided a solid test case for the development of mobile TV products and standards,” said, Dr. Kwang Hyun Kim, senior vice president, strategic marketing team, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. “For mobile handheld designers, Samsung’s new mobile TV chip solution delivers design convenience, compact form factor and cost competitiveness. Additional services such as reference platforms and automated test programs are available to expedite time-to-market.”

On a single die, Samsung’s new S3C4F71 SoC combines a zero-IF CMOS RF tuner, a supporting UHF and S-band frequency range and a China multimedia mobile broadcasting (CMMB) standard compliant baseband channel decoder with 8MHz channel bandwidth. This new SoC also has sufficient embedded memory capacity for operation without the need for additional external memory.

Manufactured using Samsung’s advanced 65nm LP process technology, the S3C4F71 SoC addresses two important mobile TV design requirements: low power consumption and small form factor. In the typical 4:1 time sliced reception, the S3C4F71 consumes only 44 milliwatts (mW) on average. Even in the continuous reception mode, the S3C4F71 consumes only 170mW, which is the lowest level of power consumption in the industry. Samsung’s S3C4F71 uses a 6.5×6.5mm2 small size package which enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) to design slim and small mobile devices with CMMB functionality.

Samsung’s S3C4F71 also shows excellent single frequency network (SFN) performance. The chip operates up to 105-microseconds (us) ? faster than any other available chipset in the industry. This superior SFN performance allows consumers to watch seamless mobile TV even in a situation where many broadcasting stations transmit in the same frequency band and thus interfere with mobile TV signals.

According to market research firm, Techno Systems Research, the CMMB Mobile TV market is forecast to reach 6.5 million units in 2009 and grow at a compound annual growth rate of 64 percent to 47 million units in 2013.

Samsung’s S3C4F71 is scheduled for mass production in the second quarter of 2010, and samples are currently available for selected customers.