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MegaChips and Silicon Motion claim smallest ISDB-T mobile TV tuner-demodulator SoC

Press release, October 15; Rodney Chan, DIGITIMES Asia

Silicon Motion Technology and MegaChips have jointly developed what they claim to be the world's smallest and lowest power consumption ISDB-T mobile TV tuner-demodulator SoC.

MegaChips has been offering ISDB-T demodulator solutions since One-Seg digital terrestrial mobile TV service was first launched in Japan in April 2006. Silicon Motion markets its mobile TV products under the "FCI" brand and introduced its first S-DMB silicon tuner in February 2005 and T-DMB silicon tuner in February 2006, around when Korea started offering digital satellite and terrestrial mobile TV broadcasts.

Yukihiro Ukai, president and CEO of MegaChips, said, "Japan and Korea are the world's leading markets in terms of mobile TV adoption and technology development. About two-thirds of all new mobile phones sold in Japan can already receive digital terrestrial free-to-air mobile TV signals based on the ISDB-T standard, which is a technology that is popularly known as 'One-Seg' in Japan. Korea is the second largest mobile TV market in the world after Japan, with mobile TV adoption rates approaching the high levels in Japan. Korea and Japan are two markets where mobile TV usage is increasingly ubiquitous, whether on the street, in subways, or automobiles."

Key product features include: small size ISDB-T SoC (3.02mm × 3.02mm × 0.35mm WL-CSP), realized by integrating RF tuner and OFDM demodulation parts in one IC; a built-in LNA circuit that improves receiver sensitivity and reduces package size and the number of components; and unique demodulator and tuner circuit technologies that reduce power consumption to as low as 55mW during operation.

Sample shipments are scheduled for the first quarter of 2009.