US firm MaxLinear claims to have the world's smallest silicon tuner for mobile TV. The CMOS chip measures 1.9x1.9mm.
The MxL7001 consumes 65mW of power supports both ISDB-T 1-segment and 3-segment applications. The firm claimed it can eliminate the need for an external balun, SAW filters and IF amplifier.
"Handsets will not get bigger just to support broadcast TV. They don't have to, thanks to this new family of silicon tuners that leverage digital CMOS process technology. By employing our novel radio architecture, MxL7001 sets altogether new size, power consumption, and performance norms," said Kishore Seendripu, MaxLinear's CEO and President.
The first market for the MxL7001 tuner is Japan. "This is the only mobile television market with significant volume today and also experiencing rapid growth," said Seendripu.
The Japanese mobile television market is estimated to grow to 20-30 million units in the next 12 months. This market will expand beyond Japan into other countries like Brazil, where a variant of ISDB-T has been adopted as the standard for both mobile and fixed terrestrial digital television transmissions. Future product extensions of MxL7001 will support other mobile television standards like DVB-H, said the firm.
The MxL7001 is now sampling and will be available in production quantities early summer 2007.