
REV. 0
AD9874
–37–
gives a
±
6 dB adjustment of the clip point, allowing the clip
point difference to be calibrated to exactly 24 dB so that a simple
5-bit shift would make up the gain difference. The attenuated
path can handle signal levels up to
–
12 dB at the antenna before
being overdriven. Since the SAW filters provide sufficient blocker
suppression, the digital data from this path need only be selected
when the target signal exceeds
–
36 dBm. Although the sensitivity
of the receiver with the attenuated path is 20 dB lower than the
direct path, the strong target signal ensures a sufficiently high
carrier-to-noise ratio.
Since GSM is based on a TDMA scheme, digital data (or path)
selection can occur on a slot-by-slot basis. The AD9874 would
be configured to provide Serial I and Q data at a frame rate of
541.67 kSPS as well as some additional information including a
2-bit reset field and a 6-bit RSSI field. These two fields contain
the information needed to decide whether the direct or the
attenuated path should be used for the current time slot.
Hung Mixer Mode
The AD9874 can be operated in the
“
hung mixer
”
mode by
tying one of the LO
’
s self-biasing inputs to ground (i.e., GNDI)
or the positive supply (VDDI). In this mode, the AD9874 acts
as a narrow-band, band-pass - ADC, since its mixer passes
the IFIN signal without any frequency translation. The IFIN
signal must be centered about the resonant frequency of the
- ADC (i.e.,
f
CLK
/8) and the clock rate,
f
CLK
, and decimation
factors must be selected to accommodate the bandwidth of the
desired input signal. Note: the LO synthesizer can be disabled
since it is no longer required.
Since the mixer does not have any losses associated with the mix-
ing operation, the conversion gain through the LNA and mixer is
higher resulting in a nominal input
“
clip point
”
of
–
24 dBm. The
linearity or IIP3 performance of the LNA and mixer remains
roughly unchanged and similar to that shown in Figure 11b. The
SNR performance is dependent of the VGA attenuation setting,
I/Q data resolution, and output bandwidth as shown in Figure 30.
Applications requiring the highest instantaneous dynamic range
should set the VGA for maximum attenuation. Also, several extra
dB in SNR performance can be gained at lower signal bandwidths
by using 24-bit I/Q data.
0
105
S 95
BW – kHz
85
80
80
120
140
160
40
20
60
100
100
90
MIN ATTEN w/
24-BIT I/Q DATA
MAX ATTEN w/
16-BIT I/Q DATA
MIN ATTEN w/
16-BIT I/Q DATA
MAX ATTEN w/
24-BIT I/Q DATA
f
CLK
= 18MSPS
Figure 30. “Hung Mixer” SNR vs. BW and VGA
LAY OUT E X AMPLE , E VALUAT ION BOARD, AND
SOFT WARE
The evaluation board and its accompanying software provide a
simple way to evaluate the AD9874. The block diagram in Fig-
ure 31 shows the major blocks of the evaluation board. The evaluation
board is designed to be flexible, allowing the user to configure it
for different applications.
The power supply distribution block provides filtered, adjustable
voltages to the various supply pins of the AD9874. In the IF input
signal path, component pads are available to implement different
IF impedance matching networks. The LO and CLK signals can
be externally applied or internally derived from a user-supplied VCO
module interface daughter board. The reference for the on-chip
LO and CLK synthesizers can be applied via the external
f
REF
input or an on-board crystal oscillator.
The evaluation board is designed to interface to a PC via a National
Instruments NI 6533 digital IO card. An XILINX FPGA formats
the data between the AD9874 and digital I/O card.
MIXER
OUTPUT
DUT
IF
INPUT
LO
INPUT
VCO
MODULE
INTERFACE
CRYSTAL
OSCILLATOR
(OPTIONAL)
IDT
FIFO
(OPTIONAL)
POWER SUPPLY
DISTRIBUTION
EPROM
CLK
INPUT
FREF
INPUT
N
C
XILINX
SPARTON
FPGA
AD9874
Figure 31. Evaluation Board Platform
Software developed using National Instruments
’
LabVIEW
(and provided as Microsoft
Windows
executable programs)
is supplied for the configuration of the SPI port registers and
evaluation of the AD9874 output data. These programs have
a convenient graphical user interface allowing for easy access
to the various SPI port configuration registers and realtime
frequency analysis of the output data.
For more information on the AD9874 evaluation board,
including an example layout, please refer to the EVAL-AD9874
EBI data sheet.