System aspects for broadcast TV reception in mobile phones

Digital broadcast TV reception is one of the most promising new features of mobile phones and smart terminals. This paper describes the system architecture of an integrated circuit solution for TV-on-mobile and the underlying design choices addressing the need for multi-standard capability, ease of integration in the mobile phone architecture, ability to update in the field, small size and low power consumption, and ultimately also low cost. System in a package technology (SiP) is used to combine a radio frequency tuner in BiCMOS technology with the digital channel decoder circuit in 90 nm CMOS technology in a single package. The decoding of the digital video stream is done in an application engine; its multi-standard and multi-format handling capabilities are implemented by using programmable video and audio processor engines. The SiP solution for TV-on-mobile is expected to consume only 40 mW when receiving DVB-H streams. It is targeted for a package with dimensions of 9×9 mm².