Microtune's New Mobile MicroTuner Multi-Band, Ultra Low-Power Tuner Enables TV on Handheld Devices; Industry's First Single-Chip Tuner with Support for U.S. and European Mobile TV Broadcast Networks

Business Wire, June 6, 2005

PLANO, Texas -- Compliant With the DVB-H Standard for Mobile TV on Handheld Devices, the MT2260 Tuner Chip is Sampling Now with Handset Manufacturers; Press Photos Available at http://www.microtune.com

Signaling the next cutting-edge advance in its silicon TV tuner technology, Microtune(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:TUNE) today introduced a new family of high-performance, ultra low-power, multi-band tuners targeted for mobile handhelds, including cell phones, PDAs and other multimedia convergence devices. When integrated into portable handheld devices, the MT2260 tuner, the first member of the new Mobile MicroTuner(TM) family, permits users to watch multi-channel broadcast TV with full-motion digital pictures and CD-quality sound.

Currently sampling with major handset manufacturers, the new MT2260 is the first single-chip tuner that enables handheld devices to operate across the networks allocated for mobile broadcast TV services in both Europe and in the U.S. In fact, the MT2260 is also the first single-chip DVB-H tuner sampling today to support the U.S. frequency range for mobile broadcast TV services. As a strategic advantage, this multi-band capability permits manufacturers to develop handset designs for global markets without the added expense and duplication of effort to design market-specific devices.

The MT2260 tuner is also fully compliant with the Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) standard, an industry specification that enables the simultaneous transmission of multiple television, radio and video channels to mobile handheld devices.

"In 1999, Microtune invented the single-chip TV tuner," said James A. Fontaine, CEO and President of Microtune. "We continue to pioneer tuner technology advances that make new digital TV markets a reality -- from car TV and HDTV to multi-tuner set-top boxes. Because we are the market leader in broadband silicon tuner technology, mobile broadcast TV is a natural extension for Microtune, and we are leveraging seven generations of tuner innovation and our patented circuits and designs to now emerge as an RF leader in the DVB-H market."

"In developing our tuners for mobile devices, given their challenging performance and ultra-low power requirements, we draw on a wealth of RF silicon and systems expertise," said Albert Taddiken, Chief Operating Officer of Microtune. "The Mobile MicroTuner architecture benefits from our practical experience with the DVB-T standard and from our familiarity and success in solving our customers' real-world RF problems in broadband TV."

The Mobile MicroTuner MT2260: Ultra Low-Power DVB-H Tuner

The Mobile MicroTuner MT2260 is based on a new patent-pending, multi-band architecture that is engineered to deliver robust performance in a very low-power mobile environment. Implemented in an advanced silicon-germanium (SiGe) process, the architecture features a shared mixer and filter structure and is single-ended to reduce components, cost and space. The tuner's high level of integration eliminates the need for an external low-noise amplifier and transformer balun, further reducing both component cost and the total power budget.

Measuring only 6 x 6-square millimeters, the MT2260 is offered in a 40-pin QFN package, supporting the significantly reduced footprint designs of leading mobile phone and handheld device manufacturers. The MT2260 operates from a 2.7V power supply and consumes as little as 20 milliWatts in 'viewing' mode, depending on the severity of the reception environment. It features 9-milliWatt power-down and 250-microWatt sleep modes to further conserve battery power. This low-power consumption enables mobile phone manufacturers to give viewers up to 10 hours of TV viewing time on 2-inch or 4-inch displays using 800mAh or 1300mAh batteries, respectively, for their DVB-H handsets.

Quality, Feature and Market Advantages of MT2260

Experience in DVB-T and in broadband TV led Microtune to engineer the MT2260 tuner to deliver high sensitivity and low distortion for excellent performance and picture quality, even under the most difficult DVB-H reception conditions. Unique to the MicroTuner architecture and based on Microtune's patent-pending ClearTune(TM) integrated filter technology, an integrated pre-amp filter in the MT2260 reduces interference from the mobile phone's own transmitter, which is potentially a major source of picture disruption.

The MT2260's support for international DVB-H networks enables manufacturers to build handsets for European or U.S. markets -- or both -- using the same tuner and common software. The tuner operates in the L-Band (1670-1675 MHz), the frequency range planned for a nationwide mobile broadcast TV service in the U.S., as well as in the European UHF frequency range (470-890 MHz), the spectrum expected to be allocated for European mobile TV broadcast.

In addition, the MT2260 is designed to interface directly with leading DVB-H demodulators, providing handset manufacturers the design flexibility to choose the optimum tuner-demodulator combination for their needs.