News & Events
Intersil Releases Advanced Power and Control IC for Single Low-noise Block Down Converters in Satellite TV Systems
-- New chip delivers power and control signals as a highly integrated solution that offers low parts count, high reliability and full protection
MILPITAS, CA, August 9, 2004 Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog solutions, today announced the ISL6421A, a new highly integrated solution for providing power and control signals from advanced set-top box (STB) units to the satellite dish low-noise block (LNB) down converter. This new power and control IC offers high integration to reduce space and costs, high power efficiency to reduce power dissipation and heat, and high reliability to ensure long service in customer premises equipment.
The new ISL6421A contains both a high-efficiency current-mode boost PWM converter and a low-noise linear regulator, along with the circuitry required for I2C device interfacing and for providing DiSEqC standard control signals to the LNB. A regulated output voltage is available at the output terminal (VOUT) to support the operation of the antenna port in advanced satellite STB applications. The regulated output may be set to either 13 V or 18 V by use of an external pin (SEL18V) or the voltage select command bit (VSEL) through the I2C bus. Additionally, to compensate for the voltage drop in the coaxial cable, the voltage may be increased by 1V with the line length compensation bit (LLC) feature.
"With the introduction of the ISL6421A, Intersil now offers the flexibility to integrate single (ISL6421A) or dual LNB's (ISL6405) with the same high integration, high efficiency, and high reliability into the latest set-top box designs," said Richard Powers, director of marketing for Intersil's Broadband Power Products. Our ISL6405 dual-output low-noise block (LNB) down-converter supply and control voltage regulator IC is the first of its kind and was specifically designed to save satellite set-top box manufacturers board space, parts count and costs for their set-top boxes.
The device can be put into a standby mode by means of the enable bit (EN), this disables the PWM and linear regulator combination and helps conserve power. The input to the linear regulator is derived from the current mode boost converter, such that the required voltage is the sum of the output voltage and the linear regulator drop (1.0V typical). This ensures that the power dissipation is minimized and maintains a constant voltage drop across the linear pass element, while permitting an adequate voltage range for tone injection. The device is capable of providing 450mA (typical). The over-current limit is digitally programmable to static or dynamic mode.
ISL6421A Technical Summary
- Switch-mode boost converter for high efficiency greater than 92%
- Selectable 13 or 18 V output
- Cable voltage drop compensation (1 V)
- I2C compatible interface for remote device control
- Built in tone oscillator factory trimmed to 22 kHz
- Facilitates DiSEqC (EUTELSAT) encoding
- External modulation input (DSQIN)
- Internal over-temperature protection and diagnostics
- Internal overload and over-temperature flags (readable through I2C)
- Output back-bias protection to 24 V
- LNB short-circuit protection and diagnostics
- Near-chip-scale 32-pad 5 X 5 mm quad flate no-lead (QFN) package
The ISL6421A is available now. The suggested resale price in 100 to 999-unit quantities for the ISL6421AER (QFN) is $2.50 each. ICs are available on tape and reel. Additional information on these and other high-performance products can be obtained online from Intersils Gateway Web site at: http://www.intersil.com/power/gateway.asp About Intersil
Intersil Corporation, a NASDAQ 100 Index company, is a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog semiconductors. The company’s products address three of the industry’s fastest growing markets: flat panel displays, optical storage (CD and DVD recordable) and power management. Intersil products include power management devices for battery management, hot-swap and hot-plug controllers, linear regulators, supervisory ICs, switching DC-DC regulators and power MOSFET drivers; optical storage laser diode drivers; DSL line drivers; video and high performance operational amplifiers; data converters; interface ICs; analog switches and multiplexers; crosspoint switches; voice-over-IP devices; and ICs for military, space and rad-hard applications. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company’s web site and career page at www.intersil.com.
This release may include "forward looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. For information identifying economic, political, climatic, currency, regulatory, technological, competitive and some other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward looking statements, see Intersil’s Safe Harbor Forward Looking Statement disclaimer found at http://www.intersil.com/legal.asp, as well as Intersil’s SEC filings as updated from time to time, found at http://www.sec.gov. Intersil is a registered trademark of Intersil Americas Inc.
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