Bluetooth IC integrates DSP for automotive audio

24th February 2015

Toshiba

Nat Bowers

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Combining full Bluetooth operation with audio processing capabilities and supporting circuitry, the TC35668IXBG system IC has been announced by Toshiba Electronics Europe. The device is suitable for automotive hands-free and audio streaming subsystems for integration by car OEMs and the after-sales automotive market. It can also form the basis of a subsystem such as a wireless speaker.

In addition to support for Bluetooth v4.0 with embedded stack, various Bluetooth Classic profiles and GATT, Toshiba has incorporated a DSP that allows acoustic improvement inside a noisy environment, such as a car, and echo cancellation for hands-free systems. The processor is also capable of decoding audio content, including SBC, WBS, MP3 and AAC files. Another embedded MCU enables the execution of application software.

The TC35668 features three core elements: a 104MHz ARM Cortex-M3 based system core; Bluetooth core with 52MHz ARM7TDMI-S and a 208MHz Ceva TeakLite-III DSP core. The Bluetooth core combines a transceiver, antenna switch, balun, LNA and power amplifier. On top of the standard Bluetooth HCI hardware and software, Toshiba has also integrated a full software stack and set of 14 classic and BLE GATT profiles, which are Bluetooth SIG compliant. Stack and profiles are pre-certified and reside in an external Flash ROM. Application code is also stored in the external serial flash memory and executed from internal SRAM.

This hardware and software combination results in a very small BOM, to help minimise system size and cost, and allows a faster time-to-market due to proven embedded software. The device also incorporates a Bluetooth–WiFi coexistence interface over six wires, to suppress conflict of concurrent radio signals in the 2.4GHz band.

The TC35668 is supplied in a compact 97-ball P-VFBGA package measuring 6.0x6.0x1.0mm. It is sampling now and mass production is planned for July 2015. The automotive qualified LSI (AECQ100 compliant) will be launched at the same time.