STARs for Cars: STMicroelectronics Fine-Tunes Next-Generation Car Radios
Geneva / 05 Jan 2015Manufacturers of car radios will be able to maximize their product-development efficiency and minimize their final product cost with the new STAR (ST Advanced Radio) IC-tuner family from STMicroelectronics, a world leader in car radio and car infotainment devices1. The STAR-T (TDA7707, Two-channel) and STAR-S (TDA7708, Single-channel) devices provide a uniquely scalable terrestrial radio-receiver platform for car-radio applications.
This latest evolution of ST’s successful car-radio tuner portfolio allows customers, for the first time, to develop a single hardware platform that addresses all car-radio segments and geographical regions, instead of designing multiple products that use different hardware and software combinations. The STAR family enables customers to produce car radios that range from the simplest single-channel AM/FM to multi-tuner, multi-standard (DAB/HD-RadioTM/DRM-ready) architectures with a single PCB layout.
The TDA7707 is a monolithic dual-channel quad-band tuner that supports a variety of radio-receiver architectures including FM Phase Diversity, FM + Background FM/AM, and FM/AM + Background RDS/TMC2. In association with an external co-processor, it also supports the reception of digital-radio broadcasting standards such as HD-RadioTM and DAB. The TDA7708 is the single-channel member of the platform, with full hardware (pin-to-pin) and software compatibility that allows easy scalability to two-channel systems.
Housed in a compact QFN64 (9x9x0.85 mm) package, both devices feature DSP-intensive radio-signal processing for highest-quality reception in all field conditions, minimum external component BOM, and interfaces to external Digital Radio decoders. They are supported by evaluation kits and HW/SW documentation to minimize customers’ time-to-market.
Samples are available now, with volume production scheduled for 2016. Please contact your ST sales office for pricing options and sample requests.
1 Strategy Analytics, Market Shares 2013-2014
2 Radio Data Service/Traffic Message Channel
