Design and development of a digital time-based error analyzer circuit for implementation in a mixed-signal integrated circuit

The phenomenon of "ghosting" in terrestrial broadcast television is one of the most significant sources of picture distortion in television receivers. As part of a cost reduced consumer-based Ghost Cancellation product developed at Philips Consumer Electronics Company, a mixed-mode integrated circuit (IC) was co-developed with Mitsubishi Electronics. The IC includes a digital circuit to detect channel changes and VCR playback sources on a NTSC Composite Video Baseband Signal using Time-Based Error Analysis techniques. Two separate designs for the Time-Based Error Analyzer were prototyped in Xilinx Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA's) using two different design methodologies. The first methodology used a combination of low-level schematics and VHDL Hardware Description Language, and the second methodology used the Synopsys VSS Simulator, FPGA Compiler, Design Compiler, and Test Compiler tools. The results of both designs and design methodologies, as well as the final implementation in silicon, are discussed in detail.