Fresco Microchip Inc. has raised US$14.3 million in a Series-B funding round, allowing the company to more quickly bring its digital television chips to market.

The Toronto-based company, which has a design centre in Ottawa, said it received the funding from a group of investors led by Ottawa's Celtic House and Ventures West.

The company makes radio-frequency, mixed-signal and digital signal processing integrated circuits which allow for high television quality on set-top boxes, DVD-Rs, digital video recorders and notebooks.

"We will accelerate traction of our latest chip with top-tier consumer electronics manufacturers and PC customers, as well as kick-start our next generation of product development in the broad television market," said Fresco Microchip CEO Lance Greggain in a statement. "This latest investment from two of Canada's premier venture capital firms demonstrates strong investor confidence as the company is well-positioned to continue to execute our operational plan and long-term growth trajectory."

The company recently announced the launch of its FM2050 chip, which integrates the NTSC, PAL and SECAM universal analog systems and audio demodulation, terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T) video demodulation and intermediate frequency (IF) processing into a single integrated circuit. This latest round of funding will go towards the promotion of this chip.