Micronas Expands TV IC Range With New Single-Chip Family Platform (0313)

Cost-effective and Flexible Solution For Full Range of Single Scan CRT TV Applications

Freiburg, Germany - July 1, 2003 - Expanding its comprehensive TV system solutions offering, Micronas today launched the new VCT 49xyI family platform, a complex, yet flexible single-chip TV solution integrating all IF, audio, video and control processing functions into one package. Uniquely supporting every TV standard worldwide, the software- and pin-compatible chips can be used in both low-cost mono and high-end TV sets featuring large screen real flat 16:9 and surround sound.

With one board layout and software design, system manufacturers are able to target a range of different markets, reducing development time and cost as well as the number of components. Especially for these products, Micronas developed a new package for customers to lower production costs.

"The VCT 49xyI product family addresses - in numbers of units - more than 75 percent of the global TV market, including both low-end and high-end sets," said Hermann Zibold, director marketing and application support, consumer products at Micronas. "This new single-chip approach gives Micronas an ideal opportunity for further penetration of the full range TV market."

All members of the VCT 49xyI product family obtain the intermediate frequency signal from the tuner after they have been pre-filtered by a surface acoustic wave filter (SAW). Uniquely, in order to support the global intermediate frequency standards (B/G, D, K, I, L/L', M, N), a conventional analog tuner and only one simple SAW is required. This significantly reduces the number of components and in turn the overall system cost.

The VCT 49xyI covers all TV Audio standards worldwide, from mono up to NICAM. It contains the complete audio baseband processing for up to three loudspeaker applications. Beside of the basic audio features the VCT 49xyI includes advanced sound processing algorithms like: Micronas BASS, Micronas VOICE, Micronas AROUND, SRS, SRS WOW, BBE Digital and Virtual Dolby Surround (VDS). For real surround sound applications with up to six loudspeakers only one additional Micronas multi-standard sound processor (MSP) is required.

In addition to TV Audio, the VCT 49xyI chips can also process FM radio programs including the radio data services RDS and RBDS (USA) without the need for any additional components. The CRT is a perfect medium to display the information transmitted via these data services.

The VCT 49xyI family covers all video standards worldwide. Due to the integrated rich set of video features, e.g. comb filter, horizontal scaler, picture improvements and the advanced deflection unit, the chip can be used from low-end up to high-end (large screen real flat 16:9) TV sets.

The embedded TV controller supports all kinds of TV data services, including WST, VPS, PDC, CC, V-chip and WSS. The advanced OSD (On-Screen Display) engine is used to generate sophisticated user menus. It is even possible to compress moving images and text in order to display images and teletext or user information side by side - an impressive feature for 16:9 screens.

For the cost-sensitive single-scan TV market, Micronas offers another special advantage. The VCT 49xyI chips are available in a brand new, cost-effective 88 pin PSSDIP package. The PSSDIP has been specifically developed following customer requests. It is similar to a DIP, but the pins are arranged to increase pin count, keeping package dimensions small. In addition to PSSDIP, the VCT 49xyI is available in standard 144-pin Quat Flat Package (QFP). With this package, an external SRAM can be connected to store up to 1,000 teletext pages and to support EPG services.

The first members of the VCT 49xyI family are available now. For high volumes, prices are between US $4 and $12 - depending on the specific IC version.