QUAD-MxFE Platform Evaluation Board

Overview

Features and Benefits
Product Details

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

16Tx / 16Rx Calibration Board

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)

Software Features and Benefits
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

Software Reference Design Examples for ADEF Applications to Reduce Prototyping Time:

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: