Microtune claims first single-chip TV tuner
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted 9:30 a.m./6:30 a.m., PST, 1/26/99
semibiznews.com
By J. Robert Lineback
PLANO, Tex. -- Three-year-old Microtune Inc. here today announced the
first silicon-based TV tuner IC capable of handling television signals from the
airwaves and cable networks. Until now, TV tuner modules have not change
significantly for more than 25 years, according to the Texas startup.
"For the first time, silicon will serve as the foundation in a new architecture
[for TV tuners] that ushers in the digital media era, while enabling
compatibility with legacy analog standards," said Douglas J. Bartek, CEO,
president and chairman of Microtune. Bartek joined Microtune as it was
quietly starting up in 1996 after holding management positions at Cirrus Logic,
VLSI Technology and Motorola.
During the past 20 months, Microtune engineers developed the company's
MicroTuner IC, which integrates all of the analog functions needed to receive
radio-frequency signals from broadcasts or cable TV connections. The
company has lined up IBM Corp. as a foundry to produce the 0.8-micron
BiCMOS tuner-on-a-chip.
Microtune's TV tuner IC is believed to be the most complicated RF device of
its type. The chip has about 35,000 transistors implementing the TV tuner
function--about twice as many now used in RF chips for cellular phones, says
Bud Taddiken, vice president of engineering at Microtune.
The startup has obtained seven patents and applied for eight more covering
over 600 patent claims to protect its technology, according to Microtune
managers.
"Microtune achieved what many in the industry said could not be done,"
declared analyst Gerry Kaufhold, who tracks digital TV and multimedia for
In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz. He noted that the surface-mountable MicroTuner
IC is "smaller than a thumbnail" compared to today's so-called "canned" TV
tuner modules, which have dozens of discrete components and require manual
tuning during assembly.
To put a tuner on an IC, Microtune created a proprietary RF silicon
architecture and circuit design techniques to eliminate on-chip interference
from multiple local oscillators and other TV receiver functions on a single die.
The MicroTuner chips used a dual conversion tuner architecture to address
both the off-air dynamic range requirements of broadcast signals that can vary
in strength and the ability to select tightly-packed cable TV signal from
networks.
Initially, Microtune is focusing its tuner IC on cable TV set-top boxes and
cable modem systems in North America, but it is also working with
component suppliers supporting digital TV and other set-top box applications
to offer complete design solutions for consumer electronics, says James
Fontaine, executive vice president of sales and marketing at the Plano
company. Microtune figures its initial product and follow-on ICs will be able to
address a worldwide tuner market that totals about 300 million units a year,
counting color TVs, VCRs, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems, cable
set-top boxes, cable modems, PC/TV, and picture-in-picture (PIP)
applications.
Microtune's first product, the MT2000, will sell for $19.95 each in quantities of
10,000. Samples of the TV tuner chip are available now with production
deliveries slated to begin in the second quarter. |
