Top Stories STMicroelectronics Announces Front-end Breakthrough for Digital Satellite Receivers and STBs First fully integrated CMOS demodulator/ZIF tuner cuts component count and system cost. STMicroelectronics has announced another major advance in digital satellite receiver/set-top box technology with the introduction of the STV0399, the world's first device to integrate a Zero IF tuner, a multistandard demodulator (QPSK and 8-PSK) and a Forward Error Correction (FEC) block in a single CMOS chip. Until now, two or more ICs have been required to implement these functions, at a cost some 25 - 50% higher than the STV0399 makes possible. A key benefit of the STV0399 is the comprehensive RF circuitry integrated onto the chip, including a full range frequency synthesizer, a baseband gain control stage and all baseband filters. Built using an advanced 0.18? CMOS process, the STV0399 is the world's most complete Digital Satellite front-end solution, taking a 950-2200MHz RF input and outputting an MPEG transport stream that connects seamlessly to ST's industry standard STi55xx (OMEGA) or ST20-TPx back-end chips. In addition to reducing equipment manufacturers' BOM (Bill of Materials), the STV0399 also eliminates the need for specialist RF expertise as all of the RF processing circuitry is integrated onto the chip. "The STV0399 embodies ST's five years of experience in providing the satellite TV industry with leading-edge solutions with ever-increasing levels of integration," said Christos Lagomichos, vice president and general manager of ST's Consumer BroadBand Division. "By reducing both equipment cost and development time, ST's System-on-Chip solutions are playing a key role in accelerating the expansion of the Digital Satellite TV market." The competitive advantage that an integrated ZIF tuner gives the STV0399 in the European and Asian markets is further enhanced in the US market by its compatibility with the state-of-the-art 8-PSK modulation/Turbo Code FEC scheme that significantly increase bandwidth usage. The STV0399 supports channel bit rates up to 100 Mbps and symbol frequency rates from 1 to 45 Megasymbols/second, allowing the same satellite receiver design to adapt to various satellite transponders in Europe, North America, and Asia. The wide frequency range, 950-2200MHz, also covers all worldwide needs. The company's Web site address is http://www.st.com/. [Reprinted with kind permission from ST Microelectronics]

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