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Atmel has made available a new active antenna integrated circuit (IC) designed for FM car antennas, car radios and navigation applications. Addressing the broad operating frequency range of up to 790MHz, these antennas cover regional broadcast systems including DMB in Korea, DVB-T in Europe and U.S. and ISDB-T in Japan. The ATR4253 IC provides maximum integration to include an automatic gain control, supply voltage regulator with overvoltage protection and an antenna sensor in a 3 x 3mm footprint.
According to Atmel it is the industry's smallest active antenna IC that enables designers to develop smaller, high-performance antenna solutions located in the car mirror, bumper, rear or side windows. The antenna detection functionality is also ideal for modern window or glass antennas, and the robust IC addresses other antenna types including pole or shark fin antennas. The device is equipped with a broad range of features including voltage regulation (important function when an unstabilized phantom feed is used), ESD protection, excellent system performance, and a very robust ambient temperature capability of up to 115°C. In addition, the AGC avoids problems with large signals, while maintaining a high sensitivity level.
With good noise performance and linearity behaviour, the ATR4253 addresses the two most crucial issues for designing antenna applications. Due to its noise performance, the ATR4253 can be designed as a pre-amplifier for car radios or navigation applications which require FM-RDS information. Similar to its predecessors Atmel ATR4251 and Atmel ATR4252, the new device enables crystal-clear reception without distortion even under extreme difficult and rapidly fluctuating field strength conditions typically found in moving antenna systems.
"Most modern car radios use phase diversity technology for improved reception quality, requiring two or more antennas. While the predecessor device Atmel ATR4252 handles both AM and FM frequencies, the Atmel ATR4253 is a perfect fit to support the application of a second FM antenna," explained Carsten Friedrich, Marketing Manager of Car Radio ICs at Atmel Corporation.
