Single-Chip FM Tuner for Mobile Phones

Sanyo Electric recently announced a new tuner IC that integrates an FM radio receiver circuit into a single chip. It is forecast that a radio tuner will be built into 30 percent of cell phones on sale in the market in the near future, with shipments of 500 million units per year expected, said an official of Sanyo Electric.

Sanyo’s 5mm x 5mm x 0.8mm IC eliminates the use of external parts. There have been other FM tuner ICs available in the market for some time with a high degree of integration as a marketing feature, but they need a considerable number of external parts — specifically at least at least 10 (in some ICs) circuit elements including a chip resistor, a ceramic capacitor, a coil, and a diode. The innovative aspect of the device Sanyo Electric has released lies in integration of all these circuits into a single package. Full story Here.