Synchronizing Systems with a High Number of ADCs/DACs
This video presents a practical and scalable solution for synchronizing a high number of ADCs and DACs—an increasingly critical requirement in modern radar, communications, electronic warfare (EW), and instrumentation systems. As these systems grow in complexity, maintaining precise alignment of high-frequency clocks and SYSREF signals across multiple devices and boards becomes a major engineering challenge, especially in setups using legacy data converter architectures without BSYNC or clock loopback functionality.
We demonstrate a reference design built around Analog Devices’ ADF4378, a high-performance PLL with programmable delay, and the ADF4030, a precision clock synchronizer capable of measuring and compensating for round-trip propagation delays. The system implements a novel feedback-based synchronization method using AION’s SYSREF outputs and monitoring of return paths from the ADF4378. This approach enables fine-tuning of both device clock and SYSREF alignment, even across multiple boards. This solution is ideal for engineers facing synchronization issues in legacy MxFE-based systems or multi-board designs where deterministic timing, low-jitter performance, and layout simplicity are critical.
Synchronizing Systems with a High Number of ADCs/DACs
This video presents a practical and scalable solution for synchronizing a high number of ADCs and DACs—an increasingly critical requirement in modern radar, communications, electronic warfare (EW), and instrumentation systems. As these systems grow in complexity, maintaining precise alignment of high-frequency clocks and SYSREF signals across multiple devices and boards becomes a major engineering challenge, especially in setups using legacy data converter architectures without BSYNC or clock loopback functionality.
We demonstrate a reference design built around Analog Devices’ ADF4378, a high-performance PLL with programmable delay, and the ADF4030, a precision clock synchronizer capable of measuring and compensating for round-trip propagation delays. The system implements a novel feedback-based synchronization method using AION’s SYSREF outputs and monitoring of return paths from the ADF4378. This approach enables fine-tuning of both device clock and SYSREF alignment, even across multiple boards. This solution is ideal for engineers facing synchronization issues in legacy MxFE-based systems or multi-board designs where deterministic timing, low-jitter performance, and layout simplicity are critical.
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