June 27, 2012 – Silicon Laboratories (Country Manager Jong-Chan Lee, hereinafter Silicon Labs), a global leader in high-performance analog-intensive mixed-signal ICs, announced today a next-generation TV tuner family that supports TV standards worldwide while providing best-in-class RF performance with the lowest Bill of Materials (BoM). The Si21x8 family incorporates cutting-edge TV tuner technology based on a patented architecture improved over four generations. The Si21x8 family consists of five TV tuners optimized for hybrid analog/digital iDTV, analog TV, digital TV, portable TV, DVD and Blu-ray recorders, and terrestrial and cable set-top boxes (STBs).

Based on Silicon Labs' market-leading patented TV tuner architecture, the Si21x8 delivers unrivaled sensitivity and selectivity performance and is already being adopted by almost all top TV brands. RF performance has also been newly enhanced, making Si21x8 tuners highly resistant to Wi-Fi and LTE interference without the need for external filtering components. Additionally, by lowering the noise floor of the tuner IF output, it provides an excellent signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for analog TV reception. These various improvements result in sharper, less grainy TV picture quality and the ability to receive more channels compared to competing solutions.

High-quality analog TV support will continue to be an important part of the TV tuner market. Even though some countries have successfully transitioned to digital TV broadcasting, 95% of today's TVs must continue to support analog broadcast reception. Furthermore, the number of analog TVs in China, India, and Southeast Asia accounts for 20% of the global TV market. In these regions, analog TV tuners often have to handle non-standard analog TV signal conditions. Through three generations of global field testing and widespread adoption by major TV manufacturers, the high performance of the Si21x8 supports excellent analog TV reception even under non-standard signal conditions.

The Si21x8 family, requiring only a small number of economical external passive components, has the lowest Bill of Materials (BoM) among TV tuners currently on the market. Unlike competitors, the Si21x8 TV tuner does not require a balun at the RF input, reducing system cost and complexity. Furthermore, it operates on a single 3.3V power supply along with a new integrated power-on-reset monitor, further lowering system costs. Additionally, enhanced on-chip ESD protection reduces the cost of high-performance TV modules requiring higher ESD immunity. Like Silicon Labs' previous generation tuners, the Si21x8 family does not require external wire-wound inductors, loop filter capacitors, tracking filter inductors, or crystal load capacitors.

The Si21x8 product family consumes low power (less than 500mW), enabling TV and STB manufacturers to comply with Energy Star and other energy efficiency standards. These standards are constantly evolving and are becoming an increasingly important factor in component selection decisions. Lower power consumption reduces heat dissipation and power supply requirements, which is particularly useful for multi-tuner TV and STB designs.

Like all of Silicon Labs' TV tuner products, the Si21x8 family supports all TV broadcasting standards worldwide, including analog TV NTSC and PAL/SECAM and digital TV DVB-T2/C2/T/C, ISDB-T/C, ATSC/QAM, and DTMB. To provide high flexibility in matching various system architectures with TV modules, all products in the Si21x8 TV tuner family are pin-compatible and share a single software API. This enables single module or PCB designs that support multiple TV and STB applications for analog and digital TV.

James Stansberry, Vice President and Head of the Broadcast Product Family at Silicon Labs, said, “Silicon Labs’ Si21x8 family is the ‘gold standard’ for TV tuners, providing customers with the best RF performance and system cost savings. Our market-proven TV tuners deliver the performance and reliability required by TV manufacturers seeking to provide consumers with an excellent viewing experience, and are expected to be installed in one-third of TVs sold worldwide this year.”

Price and supply
The Si2178/58/48/38/28 TV tuners are currently available for samples and bulk supply. The Si2178 hybrid TV tuner, equipped with an analog demodulator, starts at US$1.40 per unit in 10,000-unit quantities. The Si2178-A-EVB, Si2158-A-EVB, and Si2148-A-EVB evaluation kits start at US$495 (Manufacturer's Recommended Price) each and provide a comprehensive platform for evaluating Silicon Labs' TV tuners for TV and STB applications. More information on purchasing Silicon Labs' Si21x8 TV tuners, samples, and development kits can be found at www.silabs.com/pr/tv-tuner .