A PROTOTYPE VLSI SOLUTION FOR DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TV RECEIVERS CONFORMING TO THE DVB-T STANDARD

This paper intends to give a thorough overview of the technical activi ties carried out within the DVBird project (digital video broadcasting integrated receiver decoder), in the framework of the European Progra mme ACTS (Advanced Communications Technologies and Services), sponsore d by the European Commission. The project results achieved in the desi gn of the digital front-end stage of a receiver conforming to the new ''DVB-T'' European standard for over-the-air TV broadcasting are highl ighted This DVB-T standard is based on the COFDM (coded orthogonal fre quency division multiplexing) technique and is the result of the techn ical efforts dedicated to the definition of a digital terrestrial tele vision system in past years in Europe. An optimized channel decoder ar chitecture, taking advantage of the most recent VLSI technologies in o rder to achieve a cost-effective solution for the receiver (or set-top box), is proposed. This work is carried out to encourage early introd uction of a digital terrestrial television service in Europe, expected by the beginning of 1998, while the demonstrator is planned for exten sive field trials in the second half of 1997. The four-chip prototype is based on state-of-the-art complementary metal oxide semiconductor ( CMOS) 0.5-mu m, 3.3-V, 3-metal-layer very large scale integration (VLS I) technology Moreover a cooperative methodology has been implemented to validate the silicon and the demonstrator.