Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Additional Information (Detail)

v2.4.1.9
Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $)
Share data in Thousands, unless otherwise specified
3 Months Ended 0 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
Mar. 31, 2014
Apr. 30, 2015
Jun. 30, 2015
May 06, 2015
May 01, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]            
Term of Invoice of the distributor 30 days          
Percentage of revenue from company's distributors 21.00%mxl_PercentageOfRevenueFromCompanysDistributors 29.00%mxl_PercentageOfRevenueFromCompanysDistributors        
Entropic Communications [Member]            
Business Acquisition [Line Items]            
Number of employees terminated         6mxl_Numberofemployeesterminated
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= mxl_EntropicCommunicationsMember
56mxl_Numberofemployeesterminated
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= mxl_EntropicCommunicationsMember
Severance Charges       $ 5us-gaap_SupplementalUnemploymentBenefitsSeveranceBenefits
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= mxl_EntropicCommunicationsMember
   
Shares issued or issuable     20,400us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionEquityInterestsIssuedOrIssuableNumberOfSharesIssued
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= mxl_EntropicCommunicationsMember
     
Payments to Acquire Businesses, Gross     $ 111,000,000us-gaap_PaymentsToAcquireBusinessesGross
/ us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionAxis
= mxl_EntropicCommunicationsMember