January 12, 2015, Seoul – STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company contributing to customers across a wide range of electronic applications and a global leader in automotive radio and infotainment ICs, has launched a new family of STAR (ST Advanced Radio) IC tuners. These new products enable customers to maximize product development efficiency and minimize product costs in automotive radio production. The newly released STAR-T (TDA7707, dual channel) and STAR-S (TDA7708, single channel) chips provide a terrestrial radio receiver platform compatible with automotive radio products.

While previously it was necessary to design multiple products using different hardware and software, ST's latest successful automotive radio tuner is the first in the industry to enable customers to develop a single hardware platform that covers all automotive radio areas and transcends geographical limitations. With the STAR product family, all types of automotive radio designs are possible using a single PCB layout, ranging from simple AM/FM channels to multi-tuner and multi-standard (DAB/HD-Radio™/DRM capable) architectures.

The TDA7707 is a monolithic dual-channel quad-band tuner IC that supports various radio receiver architectures, including FM Phase Diversity, FM + background FM/AM, and FM/AM + background RDS/TMC. Additionally, when connected to an external processor, it can handle digital radio broadcasting standards such as HD-Radio™ and DAB. The TDA7708 is a single-channel product of this platform, enabling the configuration of a single-channel system product through hardware (pin-to-pin) and software compatibility without any modifications to the dual-channel TDA7707.

Both products are provided in a compact QFN64 (9mm x 9mm x 0.85mm) package and feature DSP-intensive radio signal processing capabilities to ensure optimal reception quality under any conditions. Furthermore, they minimize the use of external components and allow for interfacing with external digital radio decoders. Evaluation kits and technical support for hardware and software development environments are available to minimize customer time-to-market.

Samples are currently available, and mass production is scheduled for 2016. For more information, please contact ST Korea (Assistant Manager Eui-Don Chae, 02-3489-0114).