Microtune has introduced a new tuner chip that provides performance similar to the MT2131 chip previously discussed in RF Report, but with 20 percent lower power consumption. The new MT2130 tuner works with DVB-T, DVB-H, QAM, ISDB-T, DMB-T, ATSC and NTSC, PAL and SECAM analog signals either from an antenna or via cable.
An interesting feature of the MT2130 is incorporation of Microtune's "ClearTune" filtering technology to reduce interference from adjacent channels. Microtune said the chip is based on the architecture of the very high performance MT2131 chip, which it claimed was the only silicon TV tuner engineered to meet and exceed the U.S. DTV ATSC receiver performance parameters.
"The worldwide transition to digital television is increasingly spanning a widening range of consumer electronics and peripherals," said James Fontaine, Microtune president and CEO. "Our new MT2130 leverages the superior engineering, excellent performance and reliability that have come to characterize Microtune tuners, and it adapts our market-proven RF technology for new classes of power-sensitive digital TV devices.
The product brief for the MT2130 shows the typical noise figure for the tuner in "off-air" mode is six dB, one dB better than the UHF noise figure, and four dB better than the VHF noise figures used in FCC OET Bulletin 69 planning factors for DTV reception (Table 3).
The MT2130 Product Brief has more information on the chip. Microtune said the chip is sampling now to select customers and is priced at less than $3.00 in volume quantities. Evaluation boards are available.
