Mirics expands broadcast tuner product family for portable consumer electronics

Monday, January 7th, 2008
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MSi002 device features I2C control interface to support legacy demodulators

FLEET, UK — Mirics Semiconductor, a UK based provider of innovative reconfigurable RF solutions for terrestrial broadcast reception, today announced the addition of the MSi002 poly-band tuner IC to its product family. The MSi002 tuner features an industry standard I2C control interface to provide support for legacy single and multi standard demodulators ICs. By using innovative design techniques Mirics has engineered the MSi002 to deliver high performance broadcast receiver solutions for consumer electronics applications, including cellular handsets, portable radios, PMPs, notebook PCs, and USB TV dongles. The device complements Mirics’ ground breaking MSi001 tuner which targeted new and next generation demodulator ICs, which typically feature an SPI 3-wire control interface.

Designed in a mature, low cost SiGe process, the MSi002 tuner offers high performance across the entire terrestrial broadcast spectrum, from 150KHz (LW) to 1.9 GHz (L-band). It delivers global digital and analogue reception of multiple standards, including DVB-H, ISDB-T (1, 3 & 13 seg), T-DMB, MediaFLO, DAB, DRM, AM and FM. The MSi002’s Fleximode architecture also allows multiband, multi-mode products to be developed, meaning OEMs can leverage the cost benefits of a platform-based product strategy by only requiring a single tuner for multiple product applications. Additionally, since all Mirics’ tuners are designed with a detailed understanding of the challenges of ‘real world’ signal reception, product developers are assured ample margin to the key standards-based RF specifications, thereby delivering OEM production margin and also ensuring a positive Consumer experience.

Ralph Weir, VP marketing, Mirics commented: “With the introduction of the MSi002, Mirics provides high performance multi-band tuner support for current and next-generation demodulator products. This performance is delivered without sacrificing the key requirements for portable consumer electronics devices: low power consumption, small solution footprint and low solution cost.”

The MSi002 is available now for partner and customer evaluation and system integration, and will be production released in the first quarter of 2008. The device is supplied with an evaluation board and control software for performance testing, and detailed driver support is available for

Demodulator vendors. Reference designs with select demodulator IC’s are also available for detailed system evaluation.