Analog – Dual 16-bit 1.25-GSPS DAC IC simplifies input to the FPGA interface (AD9128)

Analog Devices (ADI) has introduced the AD9128, a performance-leading 16-bit, 1.25-GSPS transmit D/A converter (DAC) with integrated complex digital modulation functionality, and featuring a JESD204A-compatible serial input. The AD9128’s high-speed serial interface greatly simplifies and improves the data connection between the DAC and the FPGA in a typical system implementation.

High-performance FPGAs are increasingly being utilized as processors in many data-centric wireless and wired communications, radar, avionics, and medical imaging applications. FPGAs are gaining favour due to their inherent advantages of easier system development, reduced time-to-market, higher processing speed, and on-the-fly programmability. However for higher-resolution, 1-GSPS+ data converter applications, data transfers in and out of an FPGA have traditionally been a design bottleneck because of interface bit-rate limitations, interconnect layout complexity, and parallel interface board space requirements. JESD204 was specifically developed to remedy these constraints by defining a robust high-speed serial interface that is scalable and accommodates data rates in the multiple Gbps range. ADI is committed to embracing this standard in its ultra-high-speed data-converter technology, and FPGA manufacturers are actively integrating this protocol into their high-performance platforms.

The JESD204A-compliant AD9128 offers high sampling rate and high dynamic range, enabling multicarrier generation up to the Nyquist frequency, and includes features such as an on-chip 32-bit NCO (numerically-controlled oscillator), allowing flexible placement of the IF (intermediate frequency), complex digital modulation, and gain and offset compensation. A 4-wire serial port interface provides for programming and read-back of many of the device’s internal parameters and functions. The AD9128 supports GSM, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000, WiMAX, and LTE wireless communications standards, says the company.

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