Going Digital Means Don't Forget the Analog

Digital applications are everywhere, doing everything - delivering your mail, documenting your kid's birthday parties, processing your data and safeguarding your car. Digital signal processing solutions are at the heart of this revolution. As the world goes digital, the gating factor becomes getting analog data to and from the real world. Almost every digital application and every digital signal processing solution requires one or more analog interfaces. As digital technology advances, it drives demand for more, advanced mixed-signal/analog technology - the type of technology delivered by Texas Instruments.

Mixed-Signal/Analog Pull-Through in Wireless

One of the best examples of this has been in cellular phones. As recently as four years ago, cellular phones used predominantly analog system technology. Handsets were bulky and, by today's standards, relatively expensive. In 1993, sales of analog and mixed-signal ICs to the cellular handset market were $654 million, according to Dataquest.

Now digital system technology dominates in the cellular phone handsets manufactured today. Around the world, digital system standards are emerging including GSM in Europe, PDC and PHS in Japan and CDMA, GSM and TDMA in the United States. Each of these digital technologies rely on digital signal processing to provide connections with less static and fading, improved call privacy and more efficient use of the radio spectrum. Yet far from shrinking, sales of analog and mixed-signal ICs into the cellular handset market were more than $3.2 billion in 1996, according to Dataquest.

Why? The advent of digital system technology has grown the overall market for wireless communications by expanding network capacity, providing better service and enhanced features and ultimately, making cellular phones affordable to more people. This creates demand for the semiconductors that drive wireless communications - both digital ICs and analog ICs. It also pushes innovation as cellular phone makers work to reduce handset size, weight and cost. As a result, the makers of mixed-signal and analog semiconductors are integrating multiple functions on a single piece of silicon - a voiceband audio codec and a RF converter, for example.

Implications for Analog Manufacturers

The demand for more, advanced analog technology has several significant implications for analog IC manufacturers. The drive to lower the size, weight and power consumption of portable digital applications is pushing analog IC manufacturers to increase the functionality and improve the packaging of their devices. In higher-volume, standardized applications, semiconductor manufacturers are looking to integrate digital and analog technologies on a single piece of silicon. That raises challenges in many areas including design and process technology and in packaging.

Increased Functionality

As the performance of digital applications increases, the demands on mixed-signal and analog solutions increases in direct proportion. Increased application performance takes a variety of shapes including higher speeds, increased processing power, longer battery life, reduced size and lower cost. Meeting these performance demands usually means integrating the functions of multiple devices on fewer or, better yet, a single chip.

Examples of increased functionality in mixed-signal/analog are evident in audio amplifiers in wireless communications, in data converters and data transmission in personal computers and in a variety of power management applications. The drive for increased functionality will intensify, as electronics become more powerful, personalized and portable. That means integrating more analog functions on a single chip.

Packaging Innovations

Portability is also behind the drive for packaging innovations. Shrinking the size of electronic devices ultimately comes down to shrinking the integrated circuits inside the device. Moving to higher density circuits raises many new design issues for both analog and digital designers including increased signal noise and efficient printed circuit board layouts. Ultra-small packaging for analog ICs - including package types such as SOT23, TSSOP and QFP – with industry standard pinout are essential to building portable or even wearable electronic devices in the future.

Challenges of Integration

Ultimately, the push for reduced size, weight and cost can result in the integration of digital and analog functionality on a single piece of silicon. In applications where end-user needs are well defined and firmly established, it often makes economic sense to follow the integration trend to a single chip solution. In the future, the idea of a modem on a chip or a cellular phone on a chip is a very real possibility.

Integrating digital and analog raises another level of design issues for analog and digital manufacturers. For each design, the optimum process technology - analog versus digital - must be determined. The need for shielding from noise and cross talk must be addressed. Bottom line, the cost effectiveness of full integration remains the over-riding issue. Given the large amount of die space consumed by some analog functions, the cost of full integration can outweigh the benefits of smaller size and weight. In addition, as process technology is optimized for CMOS as it is with the new .18 micron CMOS processes, it becomes less and less optimal for analog devices. Clearly, the challenges of integration will have to be met on a design-by-design basis.

Texas Instruments: Building Leadership in Mixed-Signal/Analog

Texas Instruments is a market and technology leader in mixed-signal/analog with the number two position in the market. With continued investment to build a portfolio of differentiated catalog products and highly integrated custom solutions, TI is committed to extending this leadership position. In addition, as the world's leading supplier of digital signal processors, TI is in the unique position of being a market leader in both analog and digital technology.

This advantage translates into some significant synergies in the development of both product and process roadmaps. As a result, TI is well equipped to meet the analog market challenges -- increased functionality, packaging innovations and integration.

Examples of TI's technical and market leadership in mixed-signal/analog are many. They range from technically advanced building blocks to highly integrated solutions.

TI is the pioneer in the IEEE 1394 High Performance serial bus. This data transfer standard will enable a seamless digital home environment by connecting devices such as digital camcorders, digital VCRs, digital video disks and digital TVs to a central PC-like hub. It's the analog driver on a mixed-signal chip in the 1394 connection that provides the bandwidth needed to enable real-time, affordable data transmission. TI has both the experience and the breadth of product line to implement 1394 technology quickly and easily. That will open up tremendous opportunity for DSP-centric equipment in the converging markets of communications, computing and entertainment. The 1394 family of products provides a high-level of functionality on both the link layer digital chip and the physical layer mixed-signal chip. These 1394 products are a critical element of TI's portfolio of advanced analog building blocks.

Another advanced building block for TI is its family of audio power amplifiers. TI recently announced an audio amplifier system for notebook computer and related applications. This product (TPA0102) is a single chip analog solution that replaces a three-chip solution. It provides higher power and better fidelity in a small footprint that is critical for portable applications. Today, only the most advanced notebook computers are designed to fully utilize the capabilities of this audio power amplifier. However, as users demand higher-quality sound and DSP-powered multimedia systems become the norm, this audio power amplifier is ready to deliver.

To meet the challenge of smaller footprint and lower weight, TI has introduced the PowerPAD™. The patented PowerPAD™. design uses an exposed thermal pad, which can be soldered directly to a printed circuit board to provide extra heatsinking. It allows smaller designs, higher-density circuitry and better performance. The PowerPAD™. is the type of breakthrough packaging needed in mixed-signal/analog to advance the digital revolution.

High-performance modems are a prime candidate for an integrated IC solution. Three chip solutions are currently available consisting of a digital signal processor, an analog interface circuit and a bus interface device. This represents an integration step from earlier modems that required a separate microcontroller chip in addition to the DSP and analog interfaces. Today, Texas Instruments provides modem chipsets that support the 56 kilobits per second downstream data transmission rate and x2™ technology from U.S. Robotics. Design efforts are underway to evaluate further integration steps including two chip solutions that merge DSP and bus interface functions onto one chip, single chip or modem-on-a-chip solutions and soft modems that merge both analog functions onto a single chip and are controlled by the PC microprocessor. With its programmable DSP capabilities and analog expertise, TI is well positioned to serve the modem market as it evolves from multiple chip solutions to highly integrated modems-on-a-chip.

In addition to advanced building blocks and integrated custom solutions, TI is committed to serving its customers with tools that make these products easy to use. A wide range of support is available online via the Internet including a selection guide, data sheets and application notes. Other support includes a worldwide network of distributors, a customer hotline, a CD-ROM version of the selection guide and more than 30 evaluation models or EVMs are now available. These EVMs or sub-assemblies allow quick evaluation, benchmarking and debugging of a product. For example, the audio power amplifier EVM is available as a printed circuit board and a pair of plug-in speakers, which allows designers to evaluate its performance with no soldering or assembly required. This type of evaluation tool can significantly reduce time-to-market.

Capitalizing on the Analog Opportunity

The world is going digital and that's great news for the analog industry. The analog market is forecasted to reach almost $20 billion in 1997, according to ICE. That represents an 11 percent growth over the '96 market. Looking forward, ICE forecasts a 16 percent compound annual growth rate over the period from '96 to the year 2000 for analog ICs. Clearly, the analog market continues to represent an attractive opportunity for TI and other semiconductor manufacturers, even as the world goes digital.

Analog technology will enable the proliferation of digital signal processors into many new affordable applications in the areas of voice and data communication, entertainment, digital motor control, health and safety, to name just a few. As a result, the market for digital signal processing solutions will explode to more than $50 billion over the next 10 years - up from $3.5 billion in '96.

TI's ability to continually bring a wide range of analog innovations to market - from technically advanced building blocks to highly integrated solutions - allows customers to better meet their users' needs. With that ability, TI will continue to capitalize on the analog opportunity in the digital future.

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Trademarks:
PowerPAD is a trademark of Texas Instruments Incorporated.
x2 is a trademark of U.S. Robotics.