Arris Picks MaxLinear QAM Tuner Chip For DOCSIS 3.0 Gear

Arris Group has selected MaxLinear's dual-wideband tuner and quad demodulator -- which captures eight QAM channels -- for its latest-generation family of DOCSIS 3.0 customer-premises equipment.

MaxLinear's MxL261 solution includes two independent 100-MHz wideband tuners, which can be used for frequency bands located anywhere in the cable spectrum.

Arris is using the MxL261 in a range of eight-channel DOCSIS 3.0 CPE including the TG862 Wireless Gateway, the TM822 eMTA, the TM804 four-line eMTA and the CM820 cable modem.

"Our new line of DOCSIS CPE offers the very high levels of quality and performance that our customers always expect from us," Derek Elder, senior vice president and general manager of Arris's Touchstone CPE business unit. "The MxL261 helps to meet those high standards, and the level of integration achieved in the chip plays a big part in making our 8-channel products competitive in the market."

The MxL261 is based on MaxLinear's low-power digital CMOS process-based RF and mixed-signal technology. The single-die digital cable front-end chip has an integrated low noise amplifier, two-way splitter, four QAM demodulators and a four-channel wide intermediate frequency (IF) output. The MxL261 consumes less than 175 milliwatts per channel in full eight-channel mode.

MaxLinear, which sells radio-frequency and mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for broadband communications applications, is based in Carlsbad, Calif.