Philips' new Class D amplifiers bring superior performance to the home theater experience

Royal Philips Electronics, has boosted the home theater experience with the launch of the TDA892x family of single-chip Class D audio amplifiers. The TDA892x family of Class D amplifiers will have particular value for DVD receivers and lifestyle micro systems, where space is very limited. Philips' Class D technology is being applied to develop smaller, lightweight designs for DVD receivers to complete the home theater sound and vision experience.

Philips' semiconductor division is one of only a few companies to manufacture a one-chip Class D device using the innovative SOI Audio-BCD process. As a result the Class D chips are versatile, with the ability to handle analog and digital power simultaneously. In addition, the ICs fabricated in A-BCD have the advantage of inherent robustness and greater temperature tolerance.

The one-chip Class D offers best-in-class performance (THD [Total Harmonic Distortion] 0.02%) because of closed loop construction. Compared with open loop systems, used in current full digital solutions, power supply costs are minimized and the excellent EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) performance of the Philips one-chip enables integration of the tuner and amplifier in receiver systems. Furthermore, the pin-to-pin scaleable power level ensures a high level of flexibility, enabling manufacturers to upgrade their designs by simply changing the IC.