NXP Semiconductors announced a silicon tuner that can handle any terrestrial TV signal anywhere in the world, as well as cable TV reception.
The device has significance for gateway manufacturers, allowing them to use a single chip for different gateways aimed at multiple worldwide markets, while simultaneously supporting OEM price flexibility by supporting a variable number of tuners, up to four.
The new hybrid silicon tuner, the TDA18274, has a control interface that can manage up to four tuners. Those tuners can work with any analog and digital TV standard, NXP said.
The new chip eliminates the need for a companion chip to support multiple tuners, the company said, because it integrated the RF splitter function, enabling shared use of a single 16 MHz crystal via a crystal oscillator output buffer. The single control interface can therefore manage up to four tuners via four I2C addresses.
NXP also said the chip provides strong immunity to LTE interference. The cable industry has been concerned that LTE networks are using frequencies formerly allocated to analog television, creating a dangerous potential for interference.
The TDA18274 also offers improved handling of DTG D-Book 7 requirements, as well as strong immunity to other spurious and field interferences, including EMI, NXP said.
Samples are available now “for selected customers,” NXP said. They will be available in two versions: a 48-pin HLQFN package version featuring fully integrated RF filters, and a 40-pin HVQFN package version with external UHF and VHF filters.