Silicon Labs introduces scalable in-car radio system solutions to enhance automotive infotainment applications

     Silicon Labs has announced a new complete line of receiver/audio processors and multi-standard digital radio ics, designed to deliver the best AM/FM and digital radio performance for the global automotive radio market. The Si479xx AM/FM receiver and digital radio tuner family with on-chip audio processing sets a new benchmark for in-car radio reception performance at the lowest system cost. The new Si46xx family includes a single-chip digital radio coprocessor and data receiver, providing advanced digital radio audio decoding and data reception solutions for both analog and digital radios.

     According to IHS forecasts, global light vehicle sales will reach 88.6 million units in 2015, with China taking the lead in market growth. Many current vehicles are equipped with advanced infotainment systems with multiple tuner ics and antennas that provide maximum ratio consolidation (MRC) for digital Radio, FM phase diversity reception, Radio Data System (RDS) information navigation data, and digital radio standards like HD Radio™ and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB). The Si479xx and Si46xx product families developed by Silicon Labs fully meet the design needs of advanced automotive radio technologies that support the global broadcast radio band.

     The analog AM/FM receiver and digital radio tuner Si479xx series sets new standards for automotive radio reception. With Silicon Labs' patented low-intermediate frequency (low-IF) digital architecture, the Si479xx family provides superior RF performance and anti-interference capabilities for in-car radio applications. The highly recognized RF CMOS design, combined with complete AM/FM firmware, sets the bar high for key automotive radio metrics such as sensitivity in weak signal environments, selectivity in the presence of interference, and immunity to multipath fading and distortion. The integrated audio subsystem provides an innovative solution for synchronizing, processing and distributing digital and audio signals in automotive infotainment systems. To help developers shorten time to market, Silicon Labs offers four - and six-channel audio post-processing reference designs. In addition, Silicon Labs provides a software development Kit (SDK) that greatly simplifies the porting of third-party logic algorithms to the audio subsystem.

     Silicon Labs' Si462x data receiver family provides a complete, cost-effective design platform that supports both analog and digital radios by integrating multi-band RF tuners, demodulators, and channel decoders in a single die. Compared to other solutions on the market that enable HD Radio and DAB/DAB+ data services in automotive infotainment systems and in-car radios, the Si462x receiver offers significant advantages in terms of size, power consumption and performance. The highly integrated single-chip solution of the Si462x series greatly reduces the design cycle of infotainment systems.

     The Si461x digital Radio coprocessor provides channel demodulation and source decoding for HD Radio and DAB/DAB+ digital radios. The Si461x coprocessor eliminates the off-chip RAM memory modules typically used for channel decoding in competing digital radio processor schemes, minimizing the system bill of Material (BOM). All Si461x/2x IC products are HD Radio certified by iBiquity, providing assurance to automotive Oems and top suppliers that these devices have passed rigorous testing and meet or exceed iBiquity's high performance digital radio requirements.

     Silicon Labs' complete radio system solutions include receivers/tuners, coprocessors and data receivers to deliver industry-leading performance at the lowest cost of off-chip system BOM. For example, the Si479xx's integrated active loop buffer eliminates the usual need for off-chip RF splitters, which simplifies the design for applications that require a data receiver for background scanning and real-time traffic information. The Si479xx audio subsystem integrates analog to digital converter (ADC) and digital to analog converter (DAC), and the Si461x digital radio coprocessor integrates RAM for channel decoding, eliminating a large number of off-chip devices, resulting in significant cost savings and reduced board area.

     The Si479xx/Si46xx product family offers a scalable architecture that is ideally suited to support the diverse global automotive infotainment market. With this portfolio, top suppliers and Oems can cover a diverse product line from entry-level to advanced automotive radio systems and reuse their R&D resources. For example, in the process of designing a single general purpose printed circuit board (PCB), the Si461x coprocessor or Si462x data receiver can be used when RDS, HD Radio and DAB/DAB+ are enabled. All Si479xx/Si46xx devices share a common application programming interface (API), which enables developers to reuse the same software across multiple different product lines and market segments.

     James Stansberry, senior vice president and general manager of iot and Broadcast products at Silicon Labs, said, "As the leading provider of radio on a chip tuner ics with over 1.2 billion sales to date, Silicon Labs is dedicated to helping automotive Oems and top suppliers enhance the performance of in-car radio systems while reducing system cost and complexity. "Our new Si479xx/Si46xx product family provides a complete design platform for the development of a wide range of global automotive infotainment systems, from entry-level car radios to multi-tuner and multi-antenna designs."