The present disclosure relates to a tuner device for television broadcast reception, for example.
In recent years, there is a high demand for size reduction of circuits, chip area reduction, and the like, in tuner devices used in television receiver devices and the like. Size reduction is intensively requested when a tuner device is equipped in a portable electronic terminal device, such as a notebook personal computer, a mobile phone, and a smartphone.
Many tuner devices are equipped with functional blocks such as a mixer, and additionally have a local oscillator configured with a voltage-controlled oscillator or the like as an integrated circuit (IC) (which is referred to as a tuner module or a tuner IC for example, and in the following referred to as a tuner IC). In order to achieve size reduction and chip area reduction, an oscillator is oscillated at a higher frequency and divided by a divider circuit or the like, to obtain local oscillation frequencies of a wide area.
In a tuner device, a substrate to which a tuner IC is attached is contained in a housing (a shield case) of an electrically conductive metal, and an F connector and an IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) connector are attached to the housing (refer to Patent Literature 1, for example).
Patent Literature 1: JP 2013-038520A
Since the housing is made of electrically conductive metal, the housing resonates electrically by spurious radiation generated from the tuner device, so as to configure an antenna, and it is concerned that a spurious radio wave is radiated from the housing. Resonance of the housing is generated when a length (dimension) between both ends of a conductor configuring the housing which short or opens is approximately equal to λ/2. For example, if the frequency is equal to or less than 1 GHz, the wavelength λ is a large value of 30 cm or more, and therefore there is little necessity to consider the resonance with regard to the housing of the tuner IC.
However, as described above, when the frequency of the oscillator inside the tuner device is several GHz, for example 8 GHz, λ/2 is equal to 1.875 cm, and when the size of the housing of the tuner device is reduced, the housing resonates, it is concerned that spurious radiation is generated.
Thus, a purpose of the present disclosure is to prevent the resonance of the housing, and provide a small tuner device.
The present disclosure is a tuner device including: a housing having a vertical dimension, a horizontal dimension, a height dimension, a diagonal dimension, and an arbitrary dimension that are each shorter than a half wavelength of a maximum frequency of a source oscillation frequency of an oscillator of a tuner IC that is contained in the housing. The tuner IC preferably includes a local oscillator, and processes a high-frequency signal of several GHz to 10 GHz. Furthermore, pin positions in a pin connector including a plurality of pins connected to the tuner IC are arranged in a zig-zag manner, and the pin connector has a size shorter than a length decided by multiplying a number of the pins and a pin interval of the pin connector.
According to at least one embodiment, the resonance of the tuner device is prevented, and generation of spurious radiation is prevented. Note that the effect described here is not necessarily limitative, but may be one of the effects described in the present disclosure.
The embodiment described below is a preferable specific example of the present disclosure, and is technically limited with preferable various limitations. However, in the following description, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to these embodiments, unless it is described that the present disclosure is limited particularly. The following description will be made in the next order.
A circuit configuration of a tuner device of the past is illustrated in
The output signal of the high-frequency wave amplifier circuit 3 is supplied to the mixer circuit 4, and frequency conversion is performed by mixing the output signal with a local oscillation signal from a local oscillation circuit 5. The frequency conversion converts a desired wave signal to a desired frequency that depends on a demodulator of subsequent stage and the like. Further, the desired wave signal is amplified to a desired level by an amplifier circuit 6, and an interfering wave signal is removed by a tuning circuit 7.
The local oscillation circuit 5 is configured as a phase locked loop (PLL) circuit controlled by a control circuit 8. The control circuit 8 is controlled by an external control unit 10. A memory 9 is connected to the control circuit 8. Information necessary for control is stored in the memory 9.
From request for size reduction and cost reduction of tuner in recent years, effort is continuously made to integrate more functions of a tuner into a tuner IC. For example, in a tuner IC which is referred to as a mixer oscillator (MO) PLL-IC of the past, the mixer circuit 4, the amplifier circuit 6, a part of the local oscillation circuit 5, and the control circuit 8 are integrated in the tuner IC. In a silicon tuner IC 11 which is a flagship of tuner ICs of recent years, all functions except the control unit 10 are integrated, as illustrated with an alternate long and short dash line in
The capacitor 21 for voltage control tuning is configured with a varicap diode which is a discrete component for example, and the control voltage supplied to the terminal 20 is approximately 0 to 32 V. A VCO curve illustrating a relationship between the control voltage Vc to the terminal 120 and the frequency of the oscillator is usually drawn with one line as illustrated in
However, in the case of a silicon tuner IC, the capacitor 21 for voltage control tuning and the inductor 22 for tuning, which have been external components of the IC so far, are attempted to be integrated in the IC. In that case, it is difficult to integrate an element of a large capacitance value, capacitance variation range, inductance value, like a discrete component. A circuit configuration modified to clear this problem is illustrated in
In the same way as the configuration of
The value of tuning capacitance can be changed by controlling ON/OFF of the switches 351 to 35N. Capacitors 341 to 34N for switch control tuning are adjusted to a desired frequency and then switched, in order to compensate for decrease of the capacitance variation range of the capacitor 31 for voltage control tuning whose capacitance is controlled by the control voltage Vc. Further, the source oscillation frequency is set to a high frequency, for example approximately several GHz to 10 GHz, by the decrease of the inductance value of the inductor 32 for tuning, and thereafter the oscillation frequency is divided into a desired local frequency, in order to make a silicon tuner.
As illustrated in
As a result, a silicon tuner is formed to utilize high-frequency signals of several GHz to 10 GHz that have not been used so far, and there is a problem such as causing degradation of signal reception sensitivity for example, when a wave near the above frequency exists in an extraneous interfering wave for example.
In a CAN tuner or the like of the past having an F connector and an IEC connector in the housing, the tuner IC is internally provided in a structure that can easily form a cavity space. In other cases, it is internally provided in an end article. That is, the tuner IC is internally provided in some sort of housing, or is internally provided in a space that can be assumed to be a cavity space.
In this case, it is desired to reduce cavity resonance by an extraneous interfering wave, and to reduce cavity resonance by spurious radiation of a signal component in the tuner device, for example. From this view point, it is desirable that dimensions in arbitrary directions of the formed cavity space have dimensions that are equal to or smaller than a half wavelength λ2 [m] of a signal frequency inside the tuner device and an interfering wave from outside. However, as described above, a higher source oscillation frequency of the oscillator integrated in the tuner IC results in a problem that it becomes more difficult to achieve size reduction of the cavity space, and size reduction of the tuner device.
An exterior appearance of a widely used tuner device of the past is illustrated in
A print substrate 48 including a tuner IC 44 and a pin connector 45 mounted thereon is contained in the mechanical housing 43. The pin connector 45 includes a pin group 46 including a plurality of pins that protrude from inside to outside of the mechanical housing 43, and a pin connector mold 47 that retains the pin group 46.
As illustrated in
In one embodiment of the present disclosure, dimensions a, b, c, h of the shield case 41 is set as illustrated in
The dimensions of
When an actual λ/2 resonator is considered, it is desired to consider any combination of short circuit surfaces of the metallic shield case 41. The largest dimension in the shield case 41 is the diagonal dimension c of opposing corners of the cuboid, and even this dimension c is equal to or smaller than 1.875 cm. Thus, resonance at or below 8 GHz is prevented from occurring, and interference with the oscillator does not occur, so as to achieve preferable reception. That is, the size of the shield case 41 is set in such a manner that the distance between any 2 points in the shield case 41 is equal to or smaller than a shorter size than a half wavelength of the highest frequency of the source oscillation frequencies of the oscillator of the equipped tuner IC.
Further, in order to reduce the size of the tuner device, it is desired to improve the connector for connecting with the set substrate, which is represented by the pin connector or the like. For example, totally 6 pins are necessary as below, for a superheterodyne tuner device of a comparatively simple configuration used in a television receiver, which is controlled by inter-integrated circuit (I2C) communication.
Pin t1 (number 1): intermediate frequency output differential+side, pin t2 (number 2): intermediate frequency output differential−side, pin t3 (number 3): AGC control voltage terminal, pin t4 (number 4): SCL terminal for I2C communication, pin t5 (number 5): SDA terminal for I2C communication, pin t6 (number 6): power supply terminal
Further, totally 7 pins are necessary for a device used in a set top box and a recorder device for cable broadcast reception, because a pin t7 for loop through output is also necessary.
As described above, when 6 to 7 pins are necessary, it is undesirable that each pin is located at an arbitrary location in the tuner device without a rule, and pins are arranged on one straight line at one location in many cases, because of easiness of arrangement of lines on the set substrate. However, when considering a soldering process, it is desirable that the distance between the pins is far, from the view point of reduction of manufacturing failure such as solder bridge and the like. Thus, the dimension of the tuner device is defined by the dimension of the pin connector unit decided from a length obtained by multiplying the smallest pin interval that the production process allows by the number of pins.
With this arrangement, when the dimension d decided by the smallest pin interval that the production process allows is 2 mm, the pin interval dimension p in the longitudinal direction of the pin connector 45 is 1.41 mm even in the case of 7 pins. Thus, the dimension L2 can be 1.41 mm×(7−1)+1 mm×2=10.46 mm, to make the dimension L2 smaller than the dimension L1 (14 mm) illustrated in
Further, as illustrated in
t1: intermediate frequency output differential+side, t2: intermediate frequency output differential−side, t3: AGC control voltage terminal, t4: SCL terminal for I2C communication, t5: SDA terminal for I2C communication, t6: power supply terminal, t7: loop through output
In this case, the intermediate frequency output differential−side (the pin t2) and the AGC control voltage terminal (the pin t3) are adjacent pins. The signal level on the pin t2 is large to be near 0 dBm in many cases, and gain control is performed for the adjacent pin t3 at approximately 100 dB within the voltage range of 0 to several V, and thus these pins are susceptible to interference with extraneous noise. Thus, it is desirable that the pin t2 and the pin t3 are located as far as possible from each other.
As illustrated in
The one exemplary configuration that solves this problem will be described with reference to
As described above, the pin arrangement in the pin connector mold 47 and the set substrate 61 can be zig-zag arrangement. Thus, the area St that the pin group 46 occupies on the print substrate 48 can be made smaller as compared with the configuration of
When reducing the size of the tuner device, the size reduction of the package of the equipped tuner IC is restricted because of the number of pins of the IC, and the proportion of the area that the tuner IC occupies on the substrate of the tuner device affects largely as the tuner device reduces its size. On the other hand, the tuner device has an F connector and an IEC connector in most cases, and the size of the tuner device is defined by the sizes of these connectors having standardized sizes, when reducing the size of the tuner device.
That is, as illustrated in
Further, in
In the same way, it is desirable that the position of the through hole 56 (the core line 55) is as far as possible from the tuner IC 44, as illustrated in
The tuner device equipped in cable television reception and a recorder for example is characterized in having loop through output. The frequency processed in the loop through circuit is that of broadcast waves, and needs to be prevented from attenuation of high-frequency signals by wiring a signal line on the print substrate for example.
Although the configuration is the same as the widely used tuner device illustrated in
In such a configuration, each set maker restricts the closest distance between the connector 42 and the connector 142 for loop through output, in order to ensure easiness in screwing in the coaxial cable, in many cases. As a result, the signal lines 57 and 157 become longer, increasing the possibility of attenuation of a high-frequency signal, for example.
Further, as illustrated in
Considering such a point, in
A working example of the present disclosure is illustrated in
Such a tuner device is mounted on the set substrate 61. A pin group 205 of zig-zag arrangement of the tuner device is inserted into a through hole provided in the set substrate 61. Further, the tuner device includes attachment leg portions 206a and 206b having spring characteristics, which protrudes in parallel with the pin group 205. Further, protrusions 207a and 207b are provided at a close side to the IEC connector 242 of the pin connector mold that supports the pin group 205.
As illustrated in
Another working example illustrated in
Although, in the above, the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described specifically, the above each embodiment is not a limitation, but various types of transformation can be made based on the technical idea of the present disclosure. For example, the configuration, the method, the process, the shape, the material, the numerical value, etc. which are described in the above embodiments are just examples, and the different configuration, method, process, shape, material, numerical value, etc. may be used as necessary. For example, the present disclosure can be applied, when using a tuner IC having both of a tuner for digital television broadcast and a tuner for BS broadcast.
Additionally, the present technology may also be configured as below.
(1) A tuner device including:
a housing having a vertical dimension, a horizontal dimension, a height dimension, a diagonal dimension, and an arbitrary dimension that are each shorter than a half wavelength of a maximum frequency of a source oscillation frequency of an oscillator of a tuner IC that is contained in the housing.
(2) The tuner device according to (1), wherein
the tuner IC includes a local oscillator, and processes a high-frequency signal of several GHz to 10 GHz.
(3) The tuner device according to (1) or (2), wherein pin positions in a pin connector including a plurality of pins connected to the tuner IC are arranged in a zig-zag manner, and
the pin connector has a size shorter than a length decided by multiplying a number of the pins and a pin interval of the pin connector.
(4) The tuner device according to any of (1) to (3), wherein
the plurality of pins are arranged along a straight line, on a print substrate, and
the plurality of pins are bent, and
dimensions to bent positions of the pins have alternate different values, so that positions for leading out the pins are arranged in a zig-zag manner.
(5) The tuner device according to any of (1) to (4), wherein
a tuner IC is mounted on a surface outside a print substrate, and
a core line of a connector is bent in a crank shape and connected to the tuner IC.
(6) The tuner device according to any of (1) to (5), including:
a connector for loop through output,
wherein a line to the connector for loop through output has a pin for loop through output at a close position to the connector for loop through output on a pin connector arrangement.
(7) The tuner device according to any of (1) to (6), including:
an attachment leg portion extending in substantially a same direction as the pins of the pin connector and inserted into a hole formed in the substrate; and
a protrusion for blocking rotation by a weight of the connector.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2013-251261 | Dec 2013 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2014/005959 | 11/28/2014 | WO | 00 |