Production-ready front-end design for digital satellite STBs

21 April 2004 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Zarlink Semiconductor is offering a production-ready blueprint for a complete front-end subsystem used in digital satellite STBs. Combining a new high-performance satellite tuner with an industry-leading demodulator, the company says that its ZLE10532 Reference Design meets the growing need for highly integrated RF chips in advanced digital TV products.

Zarlink's RF chips for digital satellite TV are used in STBs worldwide, in both 'free-to-air' and subscriber-based digital satellite systems. In China, one of the fastest growing markets for digital satellite STBs, 70% of manufacturers already use Zarlink tuners, according to company research.

To lower their costs and improve time-to-market, consumer electronics manufacturers want a 'fit and forget' front-end tuner and demodulator solution that reduces external component costs and time-consuming in-house design work. The ZLE10532 Reference Design combines the company's new ZL10036 tuner and proven ZL10312 demodulator to provide a complete motherboard-based RF subsystem for tuning, scanning, decoding, and demodulating digital satellite TV signals.

The ZL10036 device is a single-chip wideband direct conversion tuner that supports QPSK modulation schemes. With alignment-free performance, the tuner provides all the necessary RF-to-digital signal conversion required for DSS (Digital Satellite System) and 1-45 megasymbols per second DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcast-Satellite) receiver systems.

The ZL10312 demodulator supports QPSK and BPSK (bipolar phase shift keying) modulation schemes, using advanced filters to detect and decode satellite channels without external components. A unique, on-chip hard-wired controller enables the ZL10312 chip to achieve ultra-fast channel scanning capability with little intervention from an external processor, which minimises software overhead.

With Zarlink's integrated motherboard-based front-end design replacing discrete tuner devices and external circuitry, manufacturers can produce streamlined STBs that are smaller than a videocassette case, according to the company.

For more information contact Memec SA, 011 897 8600.

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