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QUAD-MxFE Platform
16Tx/16Rx Direct L/S/C-Band Sampled Phased-Array/RADAR/EW/SATCOM Development Platform
Overview
Features and Benefits
Quad-MxFE Digitizing Card- Multi-Channel, Wideband System Development Platform Using MxFE
- Mates With Xilinx VCU118 Evaluation Board (Not Included)
- 16x RF Receive (Rx) Channels (32x Digital Rx Channels)
- Total 16x 1.5GSPS to 4GSPS ADC
- 48x Digital Down Converters (DDCs), Each Including Complex Numerically-Controlled Oscillators (NCOs)
- 16x Programmable Finite Impulse Response Filters (pFIRs)
- 16x RF Transmit (Tx) Channels (32x Digital Tx Channels)
- Total 16x 3GSPS to 12GSPS DAC
- 48x Digital Up Converters (DUCs) , Each Including Complex Numerically-Controlled Oscillators (NCOs)
- Flexible Rx & Tx RF Front-Ends
- Rx: Filtering, Amplification, Digital Step Attenuation for Gain Control
- Tx: Filtering, Amplification
- On-Board Power Regulation from Single 12V Power Adapter (Included)
- Flexible Clock Distribution
- On-Board Clock Distribution from Single External 500MHz Reference
- Support for External Converter Clock per MxFE
- Mates to Quad-MxFE Digitizing Card & VCU118 PMOD Interface (Cable Included)
- Provides Both Individual Adjacent Channel Loopback and Combined Channel Loopback Options
- Combined Tx Channels Out Via SMA Option
- Combined Rx Channels In Via SMA Option
- On-Board Log Power Detectors With AD5592R Output To VCU118 Over PMOD
- On-Board Power Regulation from Single 12V Power Adapter (Included)
Easy Control Tools and Platform Interfaces to Simplify Software Framework Developments:
- IIO Oscilloscope GUI
- MATLAB Add-Ons & Example Scripts
- Example HDL Builds including JESD204b/JESD204c Bring-Up
- Embedded Software Solutions for Linux and Device Drivers
- MATLAB System Applications GUI
- Multi-Chip Synchronization for Power-Up Phase Determinism
- System-Level Amplitude/Phase Alignment Using NCOs
- Low-Latency ADC-to-DAC Loopback Bypassing JESD Interface
- pFIR Control for Broadband Channel-to-Channel Amplitude/Phase Alignment
- Fast-Frequency Hopping
- Calibration Board MATLAB Driver File
- FPGA Programming MATLAB Script
Product Details
The Quad-MxFE System Development Platform contains four MxFE® software defined, direct RF sampling transceivers, as well as associated RF front-ends, clocking, and power circuitry. The target application is phased array radars, electronic warfare, and ground-based SATCOM, specifically a 16 transmit/16 receive channel direct sampling phased array at L/S/C band (0.1 GHz to ~5GHz). The Rx & Tx RF front-end has drop-in configurations that allow for customized frequency ranges, depending on the user’s application.
The Quad-MxFE System Development Platform highlights a complete system solution. It is intended as a testbed for demonstrating multi-chip synchronization as well as the implementation of system level calibrations, beamforming algorithms, and other signal processing algorithms. The system is designed to mate with a VCU118 Evaluation Board from Xilinx®, which features the Virtex® UltraScale+™ XCVU9P FPGA, with provided reference software, HDL code, and MATLAB system-level interfacing.
In addition to the Quad-MxFE Digitizing Card, the kit also contains a 16Tx / 16Rx Calibration Board that is used to develop system-level calibration algorithms, or otherwise more easily demonstrate power-up phase determinism in situations pertinent to their own use case. The Calibration Board also allows the user to demonstrate combined-channel dynamic range, spurious, and phase noise improvements and can also be controlled via a free MATLAB add-on when connected to the PMOD interface of the VCU118.
The system can be used to enable quick time-to-market development programs for applications like:
- ADEF (Phased-Array, RADAR, EW, SATCOM)
- Communications Infrastructure (Multiband 5G and mmWave 5G)
- Electronic Test and Measurement
Getting Started
System Requirements
- Reference Oscillator or Waveform Generator (500MHz)
Get a fixed 500MHz (Wenzel) - Ethernet Cable (Digi Key)
- USB to Ethernet Dongle (Digi Key)
- 2x USB micro cables
Included with VCU118 kit - 12V (9A+ capability) Wall Supply:
AC/DC Desktop Adapter 12V 150W (Digi Key)
Cord 14AWG NEMA5-15P - IEC320 3' (Digi Key) - SMA Cables (50 Ω)
- 2x MMCX-SMA cables (included with Quad MxFE Board Kit) (Digi Key)
- 32x MMCX-MMCX cables (2 cables included with ADQUADMXFE-CAL) (Samtec)
- Fan (AC INFINITY)
- VCU118 FPGA Board (Avnet)
- FMC+ Extender
- Board Standoffs
Standoff on McMaster (McMASTER-CARR)
Screw on Digikey (Digi Key)