High Performance CMOS Hybrid TV Tuner Utilises Breakthrough Radio Technology

Designed to replace and outperform conventional Can tuners, the RadiX exceeds the A/74 specification by a wide margin. Featuring built-in LNA and SAW filters, the new tuner supports digital TV standards such as ATSC (8-VSB), QAM, DVB-T and DVB-C, together with analog TV standards such as NTSC, PAL and SECAM and FM radio formats.

The RadiX TV Tuner leverages nineteen issued or pending ESS patents including: Virtual Weaver Architecture; Direct Sampling Mixer; Channel Selection Filter; and Advanced High Resolution Synthesizer. The new Virtual Weaver architecture - the first fundamental advance in tuner technology since 1956 - eliminates the need for precise matching of components, which enables high performance at a low cost.

The RadiX tuner combines high performance with low-power consumption and extremely fast channel locking time. It uses a fast systolic analog array integrated in a discrete signal processing engine and a digital signal processing unit to tune the channels. The discrete signal processor replaces several power hungry blocks found in conventional tuners, which reduces the power consumption of the RadiX to less than 400 mW. A sleep mode can be enabled for a minimal 1.2 mW power consumption.

According to Robert Wong, vice-president of marketing and worldwide sales for ESS Technology the RadiX tuner is poised to revolutionize the TV tuner market and become the tuner of choice for TV reception everywhere: “The growing adoption of TV reception in portable, mobile and automotive devices means that TV viewing is no longer limited to the living room,” Wong said. “By utilizing ESS’s advanced technology, the RadiX tuner is able to achieve conventional Can tuner performance with the lowest power consumption and bill of materials.”
ESS Technology’s RadiX TV Tuner is packaged in a 40-QFN. Samples are scheduled to be available in February 2010.