Mobile TV chip specialist Siano Mobile Silicon and Vishay Intertechnology claim to have the world’s smallest UHF antenna chip for mobile digital TV applications.

”From now on, mobile TV device makers can base their designs on an antenna chip that is no larger than a typical small integrated circuit, and eliminate the need for the long "telescopic" antennas currently used,” said the firms.

Applicable for all mobile TV technologies that deploy the UHF spectrum band - DVB-T, DVB-H, ISDB-T, MediaFLO and China's DMB-T - the SMS8021/RFW8021 supports a wide bandwidth range from 470MHz to 870MHz at high gain.

Measuring just 15x10x1.2 mm in size, the omni-directional antenna chip is mounted directly on the internal PCB, with soldering pads similar to any other chip in the phone.

According to Alon Ironi, CEO of Siano: “This tiny, high-performance antenna chip is what mobile device makers have been waiting for, and we believe that it will quickly make external antennae for mobile TV a memory of the past.”
 
"One of the strongest conclusions we made from our DVB-H service deployment in Italy is that more than two thirds of consumers don't like the DVB-H antenna," said Maria Lorenza Demarie, project manager for DVB-H deployment at Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM), one of the first mobile operators in the world to commerically deploy DVB-H.

"During the last five to six years, mobile phone users have become accustomed to phones without a visible antenna, and they find it hard to accept 'stepping back' with DVB-H. A miniature antenna that can be buried inside the phone casing like a GSM antenna is exactly the right solution for DVB-H, and we are glad that such a solution has finally been made available," said Lorenza Demarie.

Last month, Siano saw its SMS1000 multi-standard receiver chip used by Intel in a demonstration of its Mobile Internet Device at the Developer Forum (IDF) event in Beijing. Siano's receiver is also being used by Marvell in a mobile platform.

Starting next month, the SMS8021/RFW8021 will begin shipping in production quantities as a complementary component to Siano's mobile TV receiver product line, the SMS10XX. The SMS10XX family is the industry's only low-cost, ultra-low-power, quad-band, multi-standard receiver in mass production.

It supports DVB-H, DVB-T, DAB, DAB-IP, and T-DMB mobile digital TV standards in various spectrum ranges, from 170MHz up to 1680MHz.