Design Article
Changing the paradigm for TV silicon tuners
Melissa Chee and Scott Howe, Fresco Microchip
4/24/2012 10:09 AM EDT
Lowest system cost
The lowest system solution cost can be achieved by using silicon tuners that:
• Eliminate redundant circuits in other silicon tuners but also present in the SOC
• Offer an ultra-small die size in the lowest cost process
As shown in Figure 6, Fresco’s Simply RF™ silicon tuners are one example of the latest silicon tuners which interface with the most popular TV SOCs to achieve lower system costs.
Outlook for silicon tuners in television
Industry experts predict exponential growth for silicon tuner adoption inside the TV for the foreseeable future in CAN tuner and on-board designs. The market for TV silicon tuners will continue to expand with increased consumer demand for multi-screen support on a wide variety of consumer devices including traditional TV sets, PCs, tablets, and mobile phones.
Industry-wide consolidation underscores the importance of delivering the lowest cost solution at the optimal performance to meet market requirements. More functions will be integrated into the TV SOC as technology advances and the most cost-effective implementations are realized in the digital domain. At the same time, there is greater demand for ultra-simple tuners that complement rather than duplicate SOC system functionality. While transitions in the television industry can take time, with fewer SOC manufacturers, the migration to the latest SOC architectures and simplified tuners is already well underway and expected to grow rapidly in the years to come.
About the Authors
Melissa Chee is director of marketing and Scott Howe is director of applications and systems engineering at Fresco Microchip.
The lowest system solution cost can be achieved by using silicon tuners that:
• Eliminate redundant circuits in other silicon tuners but also present in the SOC
• Offer an ultra-small die size in the lowest cost process
As shown in Figure 6, Fresco’s Simply RF™ silicon tuners are one example of the latest silicon tuners which interface with the most popular TV SOCs to achieve lower system costs.
Figure 6: An example of a simple silicon tuner that eliminates duplication of circuits for the lowest system cost.
Outlook for silicon tuners in television
Industry experts predict exponential growth for silicon tuner adoption inside the TV for the foreseeable future in CAN tuner and on-board designs. The market for TV silicon tuners will continue to expand with increased consumer demand for multi-screen support on a wide variety of consumer devices including traditional TV sets, PCs, tablets, and mobile phones.
Industry-wide consolidation underscores the importance of delivering the lowest cost solution at the optimal performance to meet market requirements. More functions will be integrated into the TV SOC as technology advances and the most cost-effective implementations are realized in the digital domain. At the same time, there is greater demand for ultra-simple tuners that complement rather than duplicate SOC system functionality. While transitions in the television industry can take time, with fewer SOC manufacturers, the migration to the latest SOC architectures and simplified tuners is already well underway and expected to grow rapidly in the years to come.
About the Authors
Melissa Chee is director of marketing and Scott Howe is director of applications and systems engineering at Fresco Microchip.
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janine.love
4/24/2012 10:27 AM EDT
I continue to follow the development of silicon tuners for TV with great interest, and still find myself wishing for minimum performance requirements on TVs so that better tuning is achieved.
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Frank Eory
4/24/2012 7:29 PM EDT
Great article on the evolution of silicon tuners. I must say I got a chuckle from the phrase "Digital SAW" -- an oxymoron that only a receiver designer would understand :)
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hm
4/24/2012 10:00 PM EDT
How do you achieve PIP functionality with Digital tuner? It will be nice if it is possible to tune to even three or more channels simultaneously.
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Frank Eory
4/25/2012 10:52 AM EDT
You need a tuner for each channel and an SOC with enough horsepower to decode both (or all three) channels.
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agk
4/25/2012 4:17 AM EDT
During 1980's the TV signals received with Yagi antennas.A low noise combined with good varicaps with highly stable tuning voltage with good AFC/AGC circuits were required. Nowa days the specifications required are not so tight as the signals are strong and almost from cable and dish. A lot of architectures are possible and many designs will evolve in future.
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JensenRV
6/12/2012 4:17 AM EDT
Silicon tuner adoption in TVs and other electronics will help drive down costs, which is a pressure needed for manufactures to stay cost competitive. Electronics have to continually get cheaper for more people to buy them, unless any major breakthrough is achieved to justify high prices. This is something I will be paying close attention to.
William - http://www.jensenrvdirect.com
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