Microwave Engineering Europe - April 2008 - (Page 40)

40 PRODUCTS Universal tuner chip enables DTV on PCs, portables and STBs Microtune Inc. is sampling a low-power, 1-GHz tuner chip dubbed MicroTuner MT2063 that is engineered to exceed the expected performance defined by analog and digital TV standards across the United States, Europe, Japan and China. MicroTuner MT2063 supports both terrestrial and cable broadcast transmission, meeting all relevant RF performance requirements. It supports ATSC, DVB-C, DVBT, DMB-T, ISDB-T, NTSC, PAL, SECAM, as well as U.S. cable networks, including 256 QAM modes. Based on Microtune’s patented dual-conversion IC architecture, the MT2063 silicon tuner is intended to enable manufacturers to combine high-performance digital and analog TV capability with a small, form factor and low-power consumption at competitive cost. It permits them to build multi-standard products today that cost-effectively transition consumers from analog to digital TV transmission, a worldwide TV conversion that is expected to occur at various times in various countries during the next decade. Measuring 7-mm x 7-mm, the MT2063 is offered in a 48 micron-pin QFN package, supporting small form-factor designs such as extra slim flat-panel TV sets, portable TV sets, USB tuner sticks, PCTV PCIe MiniCards, SCART set-top boxes and other small, popular devices. It integrates an intermediate frequency (IF) filter, low-noise amplifier and fully integrated automatic gain control. The 1-Watt tuner offers adjustable power modes to help reduce power consumption and conserve battery power. www.mwee.com/207000309 Mobile WiMAX processor features low power for handheld applications Aimed at handheld device and module manufacturers, Altair Semiconductor has released the ALT2150 mobile WiMAX baseband processor that implements full WiMAX Forum Wave-2 physical (PHY) Layer and Media Access Control (MAC) functionality. The ALT2150 is the first in a family of chipsets from Altair. The ALT2150 integrates Altair’s proprietary, highly programmable Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) processor (codenamed O2P) rather than a conventional DSP to provide what the company says is high PHY performance, ultra-low power consumption and future-proof algorithmic implementation. The power consumption figures of a complete Mobile WiMAX MIMO solution, which includes an ALT2150, RF transceiver, power amplifier and power management, are as follows: 142 mW for 10 Mbit/s FTP download; 125 mW for 1 Mbit/s FTP upload; 81 mW for streaming H.264 video; 98 mW for VoIP call and standby current of under 0.5mA. To yield a further reduction in power, the ALT2150 employs Altair’s pending ELP (Extreme Low Power technology). The ALT2150 is housed in a 7-mm x 7-mm low-profile BGA. www.mwee.com/207000305 InGaP power amplifiers address base station applications Available from RF Micro Devices, the one-watt SPA-1426Z and two-watt SPA-1526Z indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) power ampliﬁers address base station applications across all cellular standards and frequencies. The Class A ampliﬁers claim to exhibit industryleading backed-off linearity performance, which is particularly critical to WCDMA high power ampliﬁer (HPA) applications. Housed in RFMD’s proprietary SOF-26 package, the ampliﬁers offer low thermal resistance (Rth) and low power dissipation. They also feature on-chip active bias circuitry and bias control pins. www.mwee.com/207000396 RF spectrum analyser free software upgrade TTi (Thurlby Thandar Instruments) has extended the feature set of its PSA1301T handheld RF spectrum analyser by upgrading the PSAnalyzer software application. Owners of earlier PSA1301T instruments with version 1 software can download version 2 of PSAnalyzer free of charge from the TTi website. New features in version 2 include ‘quick menu’ mode which provides rapid singlekey access to commonly used functions, and measurement in dBuV as an alternative to dBm. A limit-line editor has been added which enables any number of limit lines to be created and stored. Up to two limit lines can then be displayed simultaneously in different colours. Limit lines can be GaN power transistor of considerable assistance to users making repetitive measurements in applications such as EMC testing. Other changes include detector overload indication, sweep progress indication bar, improved battery indication and revised marker readout. The ability to easily update and extend the software is aided by the product’s incorporation of a Palm T|X handheld computer. www.mwee.com/207000278 addresses 2.5- and 3.5-GHz markets Nitronex has developed a gallium nitride high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) that delivers 45 W at 28 V for high PAR (peak to average ratio) and pulsed applications. It combines a broadband DC to 4 GHz high power density GaN-on-Si HEMT with a cost-effective, thermally enhanced PSOP plastic package for light thermal load power applications. It delivers 5 W average power for 2.5 to 3.5 GHz WiMAX applications (single carrier OFDM 64-QAM ¾, 10.3 dB peak to average, 10 MHz channel bandwidth) and 4.5 W for 3.3 to 3.5 GHz WiMAX applications (single carrier OFDM 64-QAM ¾, 10.3 dB peak to average, 3.5 MHz channel bandwidth). www.mwee.com/207000398 Microwave Engineering Europe ● April 2008 ● www.mwee.com 040_MWEE.indd 40 28/03/08 17:02:22 http://www.mwee.com/207000305 http://www.mwee.com/207000309 http://www.mwee.com/207000396 http://www.mwee.com/207000398 http://www.mwee.com/207000278 http://www.mwee.com

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Microwave Engineering Europe - April 2008 News Contents Comment Test and Measurement: Comprehensive WiMAX and Wi-Fi Product Design Demands Effective Channel Emulation Military/Aerospace Focus: Hardware Needs Limit Software Radio Interview — Mitsubishi Electric Europe: GaAs Technologies Spanning High-End Space and Radar Through to Cost-Sensitive Handset and LNB Applications How Do You Test ZigBee Transmitters? Advanced Receiver Design Boosts Performance CMOS PAs Pave the Way for One-Chip Phones Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - April 2008

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