Abstract: Currently tuner circuits maintain normal power consumption while they are receiving RF signals and do not have provisions therein for disabling portions of their circuitry for reducing of power consumption. For example, during changing of channels, portions of the tuner are not used while the tuner is waiting for channel data. Thus, disabling portions of the circuit while the tuner is waiting for data serves to reduce power consumption of the tuner. Furthermore, tuner power consumption is reduced by determining whether a signal input to the tuner circuit requires amplification or not, or whether linearity in the amplifier can be sacrificed by a reduction in amplifier gain. Thus, a tuner circuit is provided that has control loop circuitry to execute control loops for controlling the gain and linearity of the tuner, as well as power consumption of circuitry therein.

Abstract: Televisions, especially HDTV, require tremendous bandwidth, however a time interval to switch communication channels may result in the loss of several image frames or a large portion of a single image frame. Unfortunately, small glitches in television signals are not tolerable since this affects the quality of the entertainment. Thus, wireless television tuners are unacceptable to most users because of frequency of glitches occurring as a result of channel hopping. A novel wireless television tuner system is thus disclosed that switches—hops—between frequency channels for transmitting television data to the wireless television tuner. The novel tuner uses a fractional-N (FRAC-N) synthesizer with an improved settling time in order to reduce potential glitches occurring as a result of the channel hopping.