MaxLinear announced this week that it is collaborating with the Panasonic Semiconductor Business Group for DVB-T2 set-top boxes (STBs). The result will be a DVB-T2 front-end network interface module (NIM) that includes MaxLinear's MxL603 silicon tuner and Panasonic Semiconductor's MN88472 DVB-T2 demodulator LSI. Both single-channel and dual-channel versions are available. Power consumption is less than 720 mW per channel in DVB-T2 modes.
“DVB-T2 market growth is accelerating and that puts a premium on time-to-market for STB manufacturers,” said Brian Sprague, vice president and general manager of the company’s Broadband and Consumer Products division. “This design collaboration provides our customers with a proven solution from two industry leaders. Panasonic Semiconductor's emphasis on low power consumption is a perfect match for our CMOS-based tuners that are the lowest-power solutions in the industry. In addition, both the MaxLinear and Panasonic Semiconductor devices have very high levels of integration that enable a fully featured system in a very small board footprint.”
The MxL603 CMOS silicon tuner offers a noise figure of 3.8 dB and includes MaxLinear's technology for advanced filtering of strong signals from adjacent channels. The Panasonic Semiconductor MN88472 DVB-T/C/T-2 demodulator IC includes an advanced LDPC algorithm with reliability information, P1 detection and ISI cancellation. The new release notes that sensitivity performance in the 256-QAM modes is very good and will enable “robust” reception in areas where extremely low signal strength is encountered.
Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. He has been with NBC since 1985 and is currently vice president of broadcast technology for NBC/Telemundo stations.
