Maxim Integrated Products' MAX2160 is a new mobile television tuner IC that is aimed at portable devices such as cellular phones and PDAs that will receive digital TV broadcasts based on the Japanese ISDB-T single-segment broadcast standard.

Article Tools

• 

With a low 3.5 dB noise figure that eliminates the need for an external LNA, the IC requires only capacitors, resistors and a crystal to complete the interface from a mobile UHF antenna to the digital baseband demodulator IC, forming a fully functional TV tuner. Besides this blend of simplicity and power, the MAX2160 achieves the other critical requirement for portable devices-long battery life, consuming less than 125 mW of continuous power.

The MAX2160 interfaces to a variety of baseband decoders. The device uses a novel I/Q low-IF architecture allowing either one (I) or both (I and Q) outputs to be used. This architecture achieves 55 dB (typical) of image rejection as well as +45 dBc of adjacent channel power handling. Additionally, the low-IF architecture eliminates the need for a channel selecting SAW filter. The SAW filter is replaced with on-chip bandpass filters.

The MAX2160ETL is specified for the extended industrial temperature range (-40°C to +85°C) and is offered in a 6 mm x 6 mm, 40-pin thin QFN package. Prices start at $4 in quantities of 100,000 and up.