Da SiLabs nuovi chip per autoradio ad alte prestazioni

Accolta con grande entusiasmo da parte della stampa specializzata la nuova serie di chip Silicon Labs per la realizzazione di ricevitori AM/FM, questa volta destinati in particolare all'industria dell'autoradio. Sono chip per la demodulazione dell'AM-FM convenzionali con tecniche SDR/DSP (near-zero IF) e decodifica RDS, ma SiLabs ha lavorato con Cirrus e Freescale per rendere il più possibile compatibili i suoi chip con l'eventuale abbinamento di un chipset per la demodulazione di sistemi digitali come HD Radio. Per il resto ci sono caratteristiche di tutto rispetto, come un'elevata dinamica per una buona sensibilità anche in presenza di segnali FM molto potenti e la possibilità di sfruttare la cosiddetta "phase diversity reception" con due antenne indipendenti, una tecnica che consente di ridurre gli effetti del multipath che rende spesso difficoltosa e interferita la ricezione dell'FM in aree urbane ricche di ostacoli artificiali.

Interessante osservare che alcuni dei componenti della famiglia, designata Si476x, offrono il supporto delle onde corte fino a 30 MHz e della banda VHF marittima utilizzata dalla NOAA americana per diffondere gli allerta meteorologici in caso di uragani.

Spero proprio che i produttori cinesi di Shenzen li utilizzino anche per realizzare ricevitori portatili. I costi di questi componenti sono un po' più elevati della media e partono dagli 11 dollari in volume. Due evoluation board sono dispobili per le sperimentazioni al prezzo di 450 dollari.

Silicon Labs Automotive Tuners Drive Future of Car Radio Technology

High-Performance Si476x Receiver Family Ideal for Multi-Tuner Car Radio Systems with HD Radio Technology

Monday, November 21, 2011 7:05 am CST

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today introduced the industry’s most advanced automotive tuner IC family designed to deliver the highest RF performance coupled with advanced signal processing while reducing the cost and complexity of car radio systems. Offering superior price/performance for the global car radio market, the new Si476x tuner family provides a best-in-class multiband receiver solution for automotive infotainment head-units and AM/FM car radios from all classes of providers ranging from Tier 1 suppliers to aftermarket car radio makers.

According to J.D. Power and Associates, the global automotive market is expected to exceed 76 million light-vehicle unit shipments this year. The car radio technology deployed in these vehicles is evolving rapidly as innovations in communication technology proliferate in the automotive infotainment market. The basic car radio has been transformed into a sophisticated infotainment system that includes multiple tuners to deliver FM phase diversity reception, receive radio data system (RDS) data for info-navigation systems, support AM/FM HD Radio technology and provide detailed station quality metrics for living lists of broadcast content. These strenuous broadcast performance demands require advanced silicon innovations to enable a superior in-vehicle audio experience.

Silicon Labs developed the Si476x receiver family to address these major automotive industry trends. The Si476x receivers leverage Silicon Labs’ patented digital low-IF technology and combine most of the traditional external bill of materials into a highly integrated, single-chip CMOS solution. The receivers provide unprecedented flexibility, offering a modular architecture that supports scalable multi-tuner designs. The Si476x supports all worldwide broadcast radio bands including AM/FM, college FM, longwave (LW), shortwave (SW), NOAA weather band, unparalleled FM RDS decoding and AM/FM HD Radio reception. iBiquity Digital Corporation, the developer of HD Radio technology, has certified the Si476x family to provide AM/FM HD Radio tuner outputs and reception with compatible HD Radio demodulator ICs.

“The introduction of the Si476x tuner family represents a major new product offering from a world leader in RF products and a global player in the HD Radio market,” said Jeff Jury, chief operating officer of iBiquity. “Automakers are continuing to embrace HD Radio technology, with more than 20 automotive brands to date announcing the technology as a factory-installed infotainment feature. The Si476x family offers a compelling new solution for this market.”

The Si476x family represents the automotive industry’s first viable receiver alternative to enable developers to pair a best-in-class tuner IC with the optimal choice of audio digital signal processors (DSPs) to create highly cost-effective back-end audio processing designs. Silicon Labs has worked with leading silicon providers such as Cirrus Logic and Freescale Semiconductor to deliver comprehensive audio system solutions that break the expensive partitioning approach required by current car audio solutions.

“The combination of Cirrus Logic’s broad portfolio of audio ICs and Silicon Labs’ Si476x radio ICs provides automotive OEMs with a very powerful platform for building highly differentiated in-car entertainment products,” said Carl Alberty, director of marketing for audio products at Cirrus Logic. “By working closely with Silicon Labs, we have developed an optimized car radio platform that delivers best-in-class audio and RF technology, enabling our customers to build outstanding products.”

The superior linearity of the Si476x tuner’s integrated RF front-end, combined with a high-performance on-chip radio DSP and microcontroller, delivers outstanding RF dynamic range and immunity to multi-path fading. With this innovative architecture, the Si476x family raises the bar for such key features as selectivity, sensitivity, IMD3 break-in, desensitization, noise blanking, weak signal processing, dynamic channel bandwidth control and advanced dual-tuner FM phase diversity reception.

“The Si476x family not only delivers superior radio reception performance at the best system cost, it also provides unprecedented flexibility in audio processing solutions for car radio designs,” said Diwakar Vishakhadatta, general manager of Silicon Labs’ broadcast audio products. “With the introduction of the Si476x family, automotive developers are no longer locked into using more expensive bundled audio/radio solutions that may not address the audio processing requirements of their infotainment platforms.”

Pricing and Availability

Samples and production quantities of the Si476x car radio tuner ICs are available now in a compact 6 mm x 6 mm 40-pin QFN package. Pricing for automotive-grade Si476x tuner ICs begins at $11.62 (USD) in 10,000-unit quantities. The Si4763LNA-A-EVB and Si4767PD-A-EVB evaluation boards are available to automotive customers for $450 (USD).

The Si476x family, the latest addition to Silicon Labs’ portfolio of automotive-grade radio tuners, complements the company’s popular Si474x and Si475x tuner families, which target cost-sensitive entry- and mid-level radio designs. The Si476x family addresses premium-grade, performance-intensive automotive radio and head-unit requirements. For additional Si476x product information, please visit www.silabs.com/pr/automotive-tuner.

Silicon Labs, "single on chip" car radio con DSP

Silicon Labs ha pubblicato le specifiche della nuova famiglia di tuner "single on chip" Si475x, espressamente rivolti al settore del car entertainment. Si tratta di una rivisitazione della famiglia Si473x ampiamente utilizzata nelle nuove radioline cinesi con media frequenza digitale "near-zero IF". La matrice dei prodotti, che in volume costano singolarmente da 8 dollari in su, comprende versioni con copertura AM/LW/SW/FM e decodifica di RDS.

Silicon Labs Expands Automotive Portfolio with Automotive-Grade AM/FM Tuners

High-Performance Si475x Car Radio Tuner ICs Optimized for Demanding Yet Cost-Sensitive Head Unit Designs

MUNICH, November 08, 2010 - Silicon Laboratories Inc, a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today introduced the industry’s most highly integrated car radio tuner IC family, incorporating the entire radio tuner solution from antenna input to audio output in a single CMOS IC and enabling the lowest system cost for the mid-range automotive radio market. Silicon Labs’ new automotive-grade Si475x AM/FM receiver family provides unrivaled performance for cost-sensitive automotive radio designs in the high-growth “BRIC” (Brazil, Russia, India and China) markets. Target applications include automotive OEM and aftermarket head units and radio tuner RF modules.

An ISO/TS-16949 certified company, Silicon Labs is a fast-growing automotive semiconductor supplier offering a wide range of mixed-signal IC products for the global automotive market. In addition to its popular automotive-grade AM/FM tuner portfolio, Silicon Labs offers AEC-Q100-qualified microcontrollers with CAN and LIN interfaces for body electronics applications; sub-GHz RF ICs for remote and passive keyless entry (RKE/PKE) and tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS); capacitive touch sense MCUs and proximity sensors for infotainment systems, center stack control and automotive human-machine interface (HMI); and digital isolators, isolated gate drivers and current sensors for hybrid and electric vehicle battery management.

According to J.D. Power and Associates, “the center of the automotive universe” is shifting to rapidly growing BRIC economies such as Brazil, China, India and Southeast Asia where lower vehicle prices are creating demand for more cost-effective components. Automakers in developed markets including the U.S., Europe and Japan also are looking to optimize cost and performance.

Responding to these trends, Silicon Labs’ Si475x AM/FM radio ICs provide a cost-effective yet feature-rich and high-performance solution for the mid-grade automotive market. Industry-leading integration in a small 5 mm x 5 mm 32-pin QFN package eliminates the need for several costly external components, dropping the car radio tuner bill of materials by up to 50 percent and reducing the external component count by up to 70 percent. This high level of integration is achieved without sacrificing radio performance or functionality.

Silicon Labs’ Si475x tuner ICs support worldwide radio band requirements including AM, FM, FM radio data system (RDS), long wave (LW) and short wave (SW), giving car radio developers the flexibility to support a variety of global market requirements with a single design. The tuners incorporate Silicon Labs’ patented RDS decoding technology, offering RDS performance superior to any other FM RDS demodulator/decoder available.

The Si475x tuner ICs incorporate high-performance standard automotive features such as selectivity, sensitivity, linearity, impulse noise blanking, weak signal processing and dynamic bandwidth control for suppression of strong blockers. The superior linearity of the Si475x tuner’s integrated RF front end, combined with a high-performance on-chip radio DSP and microcontroller, delivers outstanding RF dynamic range and immunity to multi-path fading.

“The Si475x radio tuners are based on our patented digital low-IF architecture shipping worldwide in more than 800 million radios,” said James Stansberry, general manager of Silicon Labs’ broadcast audio products. “The Si475x ICs are designed to deliver automotive-grade performance and reliability while also providing the signature industry-leading integration and reduction in manufacturing costs that are the hallmark of Silicon Labs’ radio solutions.”

Pricing and Availability

The Si475x is the latest member of Silicon Labs’ growing family of automotive-grade radio tuners, which includes the Si474x tuner family for economy radio applications. Samples and production quantities of the Si475x car radio tuner ICs are available now. Pricing for the Si475x tuner ICs begins at $8.18 (USD) in 10,000-unit quantities. The Si4757LNA-A-EVB evaluation board is available to automotive customers for $450 (USD). For additional Si475x product information, please visit www.silabs.com/pr/automotive.

Il promettente connubio tra analogico e digitale

Arrivano altre novità dall'amico Cédric e dal suo blog DxFm & DxTv, dove vengono periodicamente pubblicati filmati e snippet sulla sperimentazione di radio-on-chip come la Silicon Labs Si4735 e microcontrollori come Arduino. Recentemente Cédric è riuscito a collegare il 4735 a una scheda Seeeduino e in questo filmato YouTube c'è un esempio di semplice interfaccia grafica che permette di pilotare la sintonia del chip in banda FM e visualizzare le informazioni RDS.

Ha ancora senso impegnare tante energie su trasmissioni analogiche in questa fase di evidente ridiscussione della tecnologia su cui si sono basati circa 60 anni di radiofonia? Al di là degli aspetti hobbystici che dominano in questo tipo di esperimenti, sono convinto di sì. Se ammettiamo che la radio via etere, il modello radiofonico diffusivo ha ancora un ruolo, uno dei modi per affrontare gli evidenti limiti della modulazione analogica FM agendo da entrambi i lati. Sul fronte trasmissivo le sottoportanti RDS possono diventare un mezzo ancora più efficace per stabilire delle connessioni crossmediali tra le emissioni FM e i contenuti di Internet. Sul versante della ricezione mi sembra ci sia ancora molto spazio per ricevitori più evoluti, capaci di sfruttare meglio la qualità intrinseca della modulazione FM e ridurre gli effetti negativi dell'affollamento dell'etere o della rumorosità ambientale. Dentro al chip Silicon Labs sono in funzione gli stessi principi software defined radio che caratterizzano prodotti molto più evoluti ma a un costo assai più contenuto. L'abbinamento tra questa tecnologia, che ingloba di suo parecchio DSP e il microcontrollo, può sfociare in ricevitori molto più smart dal punto di vista delle interfacce utente e molto più robusti sul piano della fedeltà dell'audio.

Una piccola parentesi sulla scheda Seeeduino, che viene dal costruttore cinese Seeed Studio, di Shenzhen. Il suo catalogo prodotti è sorprendente, pieno di controller, sensori, strumenti di misura. C'è persino la possibilità di ordinare per 89 dollari il DSO Nano v2 un oscilloscopio 0-1 MHz poco più grande di una carta di credito, costruito intorno a un microchip ARM Cortex. A seconda delle versioni, con chip Atmega 328 o 328P, i prezzi di Seeeduino sono compresi tra i 22 e i 40 dollari. Ovviamente si parla di elettronica digitale da hobbysti, non di strumentazione o hardware professionale. Ma il potenziale esprimibile, anche in termini di apprendimento, mi sembra enorme.