Wade Gillham
Silicon Laboratories

One of the emerging trends in portable devices is offering music along with data and voice transmissions. Digital media is becoming increasingly popular, but we should not forget about the demand for and popularity of AM and FM radio. The challenge for semiconductor suppliers is to enable these popular features cost effectively and in a very small footprint. AM radio in particular is very challenging due to the large antenna required. As a result, many very small, battery powered, multi-function portable devices do not have a large penetration of AM radio.

This paper explains how to implement music and AM radio capability in a full-featured portable device without having to make compromises on the size of the end product, while maintaining low power requirements.