Frontier Silicon launches DAB radio module

The new Capri FS3010, measuring only 27 x 16 x 2.6 mm, is a miniature SMT (surface mount technology) module, which enables it to be fixed directly to the DAB radio system board and avoids the need for connectors. The small size and high level of integration in the module makes Capri ideal for low-power product applications such as tiny pocket DAB players and personal media MP3 handhelds, as well as PDAs and other portable entertainment devices.



The Capri module is based on Frontier Silicon’s Apollo multi-band RF tuner and Kino 2 multistandard DAB and T-DMB digital baseband processor. Complete DAB digital radio systems can be built using Capri as a slave module controlled by a host processor, with several host interfaces available for control and data transport streams, including SPI, SCP, and I2S. The module receives both L-Band and Band 3 broadcasts, enabling worldwide DAB reception.



The Apollo/Kino 2 chipset combination is based on a highly-integrated system-on-chip architecture, with the individual chips themselves contributing to the overall low power consumption and compact size. Apollo measures just 5 x 5 x 0.9 mm, making it the world’s smallest RF tuner for DAB digital radio reception, and requires very few external components. Kino 2 measures 10 x 10 x 1.3 mm and integrates multiple peripherals and interfaces, which simplifies interfacing to the RF tuner and host processor. Kino 2 executes multiple multimedia and communication-based tasks concurrent with the decoding and error correction of DAB audio and data streams. It decodes multiple audio and data services up to the maximum 1.8 Mbps.