RF semiconductor company Elonics and Taiwan-based networking IC design house Realtek Semiconductor have collaborated to create a multi-standard DVB-T, DAB/DAB+ and FM TV and Radio reference design. The platform can be adopted by manufacturers as an external USB dongle or internal USB Minicard.
The reference design is able to receive both digital TV and radio. The same hardware is used to receive all standards by seamlessly reconfiguring the personality of the devices using the supplied software drivers. The device operates in both VHF and L band frequencies. It has low power consumption (around 650mW fully active) and the ultra low component count creates low production costs, the companies highlighted.
"With high sensitivity performance (-98dBm QPSK, C/R 1/2, DVB-T, 8MHz), the design is proven to work even in the weakest signal environments," said Julian Hayes, Elonics VP of sales and marketing.
The production-ready TV and radio USB design contains Elonics E4000 CMOS RF tuner that uses DigitalTune technology to enable high performance and multi-standard capabilities. The companion Realtek RTL2832U is a digital TV and radio USB 2.0 demodulator with DVB-T and FM/DAB/DAB+ reception ability.
The reference design surpasses Nordig 2.0, D-Book 5.0 and ETSI 300-744 requirements and can be used for PCs of any size (including notebooks and netbooks). It is available in a number of different form factors and feature options. The USB dongle comes in a number of different sizes from 31mm×18mm including USB connector.