March 26, 2015 – Silicon Labs (Country Manager: Woon-Dal Paik), a specialist in broadcast audio solutions for automotive infotainment, announced the launch of an integrated portfolio of receiver/audio processors and multi-standard digital radio ICs designed to deliver industry-leading AM/FM and digital radio performance, targeting the global automotive radio market. The Si479xx family of AM/FM receivers and digital radio tuners establishes a new benchmark for automotive radio reception performance by providing on-chip audio processing at the industry's lowest system cost. The new Si46xx family includes a single-chip digital radio coprocessor and data receiver, offering audio decoding for advanced digital radio and data reception solutions for both analog and digital radio.

According to IHS Automotive, global car sales in 2015 are projected to reach 88.6 million units, with China leading production growth. Many vehicles today feature complex infotainment systems that use multiple tuner ICs and antennas to support digital radio, FM phase diversity reception, and RDS (Radio Data System) info-navigation data, as well as MRC (maximal ratio combining) to handle digital radio standards such as HD Radio™ and DAB (Digital Audio Broadcast). Silicon Labs developed the Si479xx and Si46xx portfolios to support all radio broadcast bands worldwide and meet global demand for cutting-edge automotive radio technology.

The analog AM/FM receivers and digital radio tuners of the Si479xx family have established a new standard for automotive broadcast reception. Utilizing Silicon Labs' patented Low IF digital architecture, the Si479xx family delivers superior RF and interference rejection capabilities suitable for automotive radio applications. The proven RF CMOS design, combined with extensive AM/FM firmware, sets higher standards for critical automotive radio performance evaluations, such as reception sensitivity in low-power environments, selectivity in the presence of blockers, and immunity to multipath fading and distortion. The integrated audio subsystem provides an innovative solution for synchronizing, processing, and distributing digital and audio signals to automotive head units. To enable developers to accelerate time-to-market, Silicon Labs offers standard 4-channel and 6-channel audio post-processing designs. Additionally, Silicon Labs provides a software development kit that simplifies the porting of third-party algorithms to the audio subsystem.

Silicon Labs' Si462x data receiver family provides a comprehensive and cost-effective platform supporting analog and digital radio by integrating a multi-band RF tuner, demodulator, and channel decoder onto a single die. The Si462x receiver represents a revolutionary technological advancement in size, power consumption, and performance compared to commercial competitor solutions that enable HD radio and DAB/DAB+ data services in automotive infotainment systems and car radios. The highly integrated single-chip Si462x family simplifies the infotainment system design cycle.

The Si461x digital radio coprocessor provides channel demodulation and source decoding for HD radio and DAB/DAB+ digital radio. The Si461x coprocessor minimizes the system's Bill of Materials (BoM) by not using external RAM memory modules for channel decoding, which are typically required by competitor digital radio processors. All Si461x/2x IC products are HD radios certified by iBiquity, and the quality can be assured to automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers that these devices have passed rigorous testing and meet or exceed iBiquity's high-performance digital radio requirements.

Silicon Labs’ entire radio system consists of a receiver/tuner, coprocessor, and data receiver, enabling industry-leading performance with the lowest external system BOM costs. For example, the active loop-through buffer integrated into the Si479xx eliminates the need for external RF splitters, simplifying the design of applications requiring data receivers for background scanning and real-time traffic information. The Si479xx audio subsystem, which integrates an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and the Si461x digital radio coprocessor, which integrates RAM for channel decoding, eliminate the need for numerous external components, resulting in significant cost savings as well as reduced board area.

The Si479xx/Si46xx portfolio provides a highly scalable architecture that is well-suited to supporting various sectors in the global automotive infotainment market. By utilizing this portfolio, Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs can reuse R&D resources across a diverse range of product lines, from low-end specifications to premium automotive radio systems. For example, using a single printed circuit board (PCB) design, optional designs are available that utilize the Si461x coprocessor or Si462x data receiver required to implement RDS, HD radio, and DAB/DAB+. All Si479xx/Si46xx devices use a common application programming interface (API), allowing developers to reuse the same software across different product lines and market segments.

James Stansberry, Senior Vice President and General Manager of IoT and Broadcast Products at Silicon Labs, said, “As a leading tuner supplier in broadcast applications that has shipped over 1.2 billion ‘radio-on-a-chip’ ICs to date, Silicon Labs is actively supporting automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers in improving automotive radio system performance while reducing system costs and complexity. The new Si479xx/Si46xx portfolio provides an integrated platform that enables the development of a diverse range of systems targeting the global automotive infotainment market, from basic automotive radios to multi-tuner and multi-antenna designs.”

Product Price and Purchase Information

Samples of the Si479xx receivers and tuners, and the Si46xx coprocessors and data receivers are currently available. To accelerate development, the Si4791-3T1A-EVB evaluation kit is available for $1,495 USD. Detailed pricing information for the Si479xx/Si46xx products is available through the relevant Silicon Labs sales offices or authorized distributors. For additional product information, please refer to www.silabs.com/pr/automotive-tuner.