World's Smallest TV Tuners Enable Lowest BOM Cost for China TV and
Set-Top Box Makers and the Global Terrestrial/Cable TV Market
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Silicon
Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), the leading provider of silicon TV tuners,
today introduced the sixth generation of its high-performance,
field-proven TV tuner ICs. Silicon Labs' new Si2151 and Si2141 TV tuners
address the global hybrid TV and digital TV markets, support both
digital and analog video broadcasts, and comply with all worldwide
terrestrial/cable TV standards. Leveraging Silicon Labs'
industry-leading architecture honed over five generations, the Si2151/41
TV tuners enable developers to enhance their TV and set-top box (STB)
designs with unsurpassed linearity and sensitivity, the world's smallest
footprint, the lowest bill of materials (BOM) cost and ultra-low power
consumption.
The Si2151/41 family provides an ideal, cost-effective silicon TV tuner
solution for the world's leading producer of TVs: China. According to
DisplaySearch, China has led the world in TV shipments four years in a
row. Flat-panel TV shipments (both LCD and plasma models) in China are
forecast to grow from 57 million units in 2013 to 62 million units in
2017. Currently, Chinese TV makers provide 23 percent of global
flat-panel TV shipments. Ultra-HD TV sets are projected to surge from
1.3 million units in 2013 to 23 million units in 2017, and Chinese
manufacturers are expected to ship more than half of these TV units.
Silicon Labs' Si2151/41 tuners fully comply with the China GB/T
26686-2011 general specification for digital terrestrial television
receivers and achieve significant margin to the minimum performance
requirements defined in the GB/T 26686-2011 specification. Unlike other
silicon tuners, which offer a large margin to the China GB/T 26686-2011
specification only for the VHF-Low frequency band, the Si2151/41 tuners
deliver a large margin to this specification for the VHF-Low, VHF-High
and UHF frequency bands. The current broadcasts in China use the UHF
band (in which the Si2151/41 tuners significantly outperform all other
silicon TV tuners), and margin in that band translates into tangible
reception benefits for the consumer.
The Si2151 tuner has been certified by the China Electronics
Standardization Institute (CESI) and its Advanced Digital TV Test Center
(ADTC) as a TV tuner solution that fully supports the Digital
Terrestrial Multimedia Broadcast (DTMB) standard for mobile and fixed TV
terminals used in China, Hong Kong and Macau. The Si2151 was the only
CESI-certified TV tuner to be announced at the Information Technology
Standardization (ITS) Forum held on July 16, 2014. CESI is the leading
Chinese government organization overseeing the DTMB standard.
Available in the TV industry's tiniest package (3 mm x 3 mm QFN), the
Si2151/41 devices are the smallest TV tuner ICs available today. This
ultra-compact package, combined with minimal BOM count, enables the
smallest footprint of any silicon TV tuner in the market today: 0.86 cm2.
As the TV market trends to ever smaller modules and on-board tuner
designs and to multi-tuner applications, small footprint and ultra-low
power consumption make the Si2151/41 tuners the clear choice for current
and future TV and set-top box (STB) designs.
The Si2151/41 tuners deliver the lowest BOM cost of any
terrestrial/cable TV tuner in mass production today. Unlike competing TV
tuners, the Si2151/41 devices require no balun on the RF input, and they
integrate all tracking filter inductors, which dramatically reduces
system cost and complexity. The Si2151/41 tuners require no external
power transistor for single-supply operation and eliminate the need for
external inductive power supply filtering, resulting in the most
cost-effective, highest performance on-board TV tuner designs.
Improvements in noise figure across the band and greater immunity to
undesired signals such as LTE transmissions without any external
filtering help the Si2151/41 family to deliver unmatched reception
robustness over global real-world scenarios.
"The smallest footprint and BOM cost, the lowest power and the best RF
performance - these are among the many good reasons why nine out of the
world's top ten TV makers have standardized on Silicon Labs' proven TV
tuner technology, now in its sixth generation of refinements," said
James Stansberry, senior vice president and general manager of Silicon
Labs' Internet of Things and broadcast video products. "Silicon Labs
continues to lead the broadcast industry in TV tuner shipments,
exceeding more than 350 million units shipped to date, and with twice
the market share of the next-closest competitor."
The Si2151/41 family shares a common application programming interface
(API) with Silicon Labs' entire TV tuner portfolio. This shared software
API reduces the TV designer's learning curve when migrating from
worldwide hybrid HDTVs to regionalized platforms and STB designs. A
simple application circuit, common across all of Silicon Labs' TV
tuners, makes on-board installations straightforward with immediate cost
savings.
About Silicon Labs' Industry-Leading TV Tuner Architecture
Silicon Labs pioneered the industry's first single-chip silicon TV
tuners, which were designed to exceed the performance of traditional
discrete tuner solutions. Based on dozens of patents issued or pending,
Silicon Labs' digital low-IF architecture enables exceptional TV tuner
performance and integration while addressing the challenges created by
hybrid analog and digital reception and multiple regional standards.
Manufactured in standard CMOS, Silicon Labs' highly integrated TV tuners
- now in their sixth generation - eliminate more than 100 discrete
components, enabling simpler designs, lower manufacturing costs, higher
production yields and improved reliability while achieving a new level
of reception performance.
Pricing and Availability
Samples and production quantities of the Si2151/41 TV tuners are
available now in a 3 mm x 3 mm 24-QFN package. The Si2151 worldwide
hybrid TV tuner is priced at $0.72 in 10,000-unit quantities, and the
Si2141 worldwide digital TV tuner is priced at $0.70 in 10,000-unit
quantities (all prices in USD). To help accelerate development, Silicon
Labs offers the Si2151-A-EVB and the Si2141-A-EVB evaluation boards
priced at $395 (USD MSRP). For more information about Silicon Labs'
silicon TV tuner ICs and to purchase samples and development tools,
please visit www.silabs.com/tv-tuner.
Silicon Labs
Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB) is a leading provider of silicon, software
and system solutions for the Internet of Things, Internet
infrastructure, industrial control, consumer and automotive markets. We
solve the electronics industry's toughest problems, providing customers
with significant advantages in performance, energy savings, connectivity
and design simplicity. Backed by our world-class engineering teams with
unsurpassed software and mixed-signal design expertise, Silicon Labs
empowers developers with the tools and technologies they need to advance
quickly and easily from initial idea to final product. www.silabs.com
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Silicon Labs
Dale Weisman, +1-512-532-5871
dale.weisman@silabs.com
Source: Silicon Labs
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