JULY 25, 2016–Pentek, Inc. announced the Onyx Model 71791 XMC module, an L-Band RF tuner with two 500 MHz A/Ds based on the high density Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA. The Model 71791 is designed for connection directly to SATCOM or communications system L-band signals.
A front panel SSMC connector accepts L-Band signals between 925 MHz and 2175 MHz, typically from an L-Band antenna or an LNB (low noise block). With its programmable LNA, the Maxim MAX2121 tuner directly converts these L-Band signals to IF or baseband using a broadband I/Q analog downconverter followed by 123 MHz low pass anti-aliasing filters.
The two analog tuner outputs are digitized by two Texas Instruments ADS5463 500 MHz 12-bit A/D converters to capture the full 123 MHz bandwidth.
The analog outputs of the MAX2121 can be used in the IF mode instead of the analog baseband I+Q mode. In this case, each A/D converter digitizes an IF signal and then delivers it to a DDC to produce perfectly balanced complex I+Q digital baseband samples for enhanced demodulation performance.
The Model 71791 features two Acquisition IP modules to capture and move data. Each module can receive data from either of the two A/Ds or a test signal generator. Each Acquisition IP module contains a DDC IP core with decimation values from 2 to 64k, covering a range of signal bandwidths. Because of flexible input routing within the Acquisition IP modules, many different configurations can be achieved including one A/D driving both DDCs or each of the two A/Ds driving its own DDC.
Architectural enhancements in the Onyx family include 4 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 memory and a Gen 3 PCIe interface, delivering peak transfer rates up to 8 GB/sec. Optional LVDS and gigabit serial connections to the Virtex-7 are available for connecting to custom I/O.
