[Via Satellite 06-12-2015] Unitron Group of Belgium has purchased MaxLinear’s MxL801 dual-polarity Ku-band satellite down-conversion RF Integrated Circuit (IC), and the MxL862 32-channel, Full-Spectrum Capture (FSC) channel-stacking system on chip (SoC) for a new direct-broadcast satellite Digital Outdoor Unit (D-ODU).

The MxL801 Ku-band RF IC is a fully integrated monolithic Ku-band down-converter implemented in pure digital Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) that replaces dozens of discrete components including the image reject filter by integrating all critical functions into a single chip.

According to MaxLinear, the digital Phased Locked-Loop (PLL)-based implementation delivers improved system reliability and increased channel accuracy, and eliminates the need for performance tuning in production.

The MxL862 is optimized for single-feed satellite platforms and supports up to 4.1GHz of aggregate RF capture bandwidth. Based on MaxLinear’s ultra-low power Full-Spectrum Capture technology, the MxL862 integrates a bank of programmable digital channel select filters enabling a stacked output of more than 32 channels. Control and diagnostic features are available through standardized Digital Satellite Equipment Control (DiSEqC) and Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) interfaces. An embedded microcontroller provides autonomous operation with a high degree of configurability.