Tuners are devices that receive RF signals and convert them to a lower modulated intermediate frequency (IF) or further down-convert to unmodulated baseband. Tuners are so named because they perform this function selectively on configurable frequencies that carry information signals referred to as channels. They are used in applications including AM/FM radio, automotive receivers, satellite receivers and digital cable TV.

FM tuners support frequency bands from 76 to 108MHz and contain a digital low-IF receiver with an integrated frequency synthesizer and VCO. They integrate tunable filtering, low noise amplifiers (LNA), receiver automatic gain control (AGC), automatic frequency control (AFC), de-emphasis, volume control, mute and adjustable seek tuning. RF is down-converted by a double balanced mixer that outputs low frequency quadrature signals. These signals are converted via an analog to digital converter (ADC) before being passed to an integrated digital signal processor (DSP) for further down-conversion and demodulation. Digital to analog converters (DAC) output stereo audio signals to an external power amplifier and then to speakers. Automotive tuners are similar in function but are tested to comply with rigorous automobile compliance standards.

Digital satellite tuners are digital down-converters (DDC) and can contain an integrated AGC.

They are important components in diversity receiver chipsets. Satellite broadcast IF signals from the low noise block (LNB) down-converter at the dish are amplified and filtered before being converted by ADCs to digital and passed to the tuner. Some tuners will support multiple IF inputs in order to improve reception through a technique called receiver diversity. The tuner will have sophisticated DSP techniques for further down-conversion and filtering including cascaded integrated comb filtering (CIC), long finite impulse response filters (FIR) and numerically controlled oscillators (NCO).

Digital cable tuners are a component in a set top box cable receiver. RF signals are passed to an integrated LNA and stages of AGC. They are then passed through band pass filtering to remove adjacent channels for selectivity and down-converted by a mixer. The signal is then filtered to remove Image and out of band energy before being amplified, gain controlled and output to the IF processing stage.