New microchip would make satellite receivers dishless, portable

The satellite dishes that have long dotted the landscape among rural and suburban houses could soon be a thing of the past with the same technology that would allow satellite television programming to be available on handheld devices.

Marcel van de Burgwal, a recent PhD graduate from the Netherlands’ University of Twente, has designed a microchip that contains a chip consists of a number of processors doing all the processing needed for an array of flat antennas to receive satellite signals without the need for aiming.

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The design relies on a collection of small processors integrated on the chip, with power only being consumed by those currently in use. In his doctoral thesis van de Burgwal showed that major gains can be made by using new methods of communication between the different processors

The result is a tiny, energy efficient, software-based television and radio satellite receiver that could make its way into tablets, smartphones, and other handheld media devices. In fact, van de Burgwal has already successfully tested the chip as a digital radio receiver in smartphones.

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“Software-defined radio may seem much more complex, but we can pack so much computing power into the space taken up by, for example, a coil that it more than repays the effort”, van de Burgwal said regarding the microchip.

Recore Systems, a semiconductor company that develops advanced digital signal processing platform chips, has taken on the project and is working to further develop and market the chip for consumer use.

This design could conceivably change the way we receive mobile information in the future. Imagine a world where we didn’t have to worry about terrestrial antenna reception and you could access satellite-based communications right in the palm of your hand.

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