SIGNALCORE SC5317A Hardware Manual

Hardware Manual SC5317A* & SC5318A 6 GHz to 26.5 GHz RF Downconverter www.signalcore.com *SC5317A Coming Soon ...

1 General Information .............................................................................................................................. 4 Warranty ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Copyright & Trademarks ................................................................................................................ 4 International Materials Declarations ............................................................................................. 5 CE European Union EMC & Safety Compl ...

SignalCore, Inc. 2 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual Register 0x11 IF_FREQUENCY .............................................................................................. 17 Register 0x12 LO_FREQUENCY ............................................................................................ 17 Register 0x14 RF_AMP ........................................................................................................ 17 Register 0x15 ATTENUATOR ................................................................................................ 18 Register 0x16 SIGNAL_PATH ................................... ...

Writing to the Device............................................................................................................. 5 Reading from the Device ....................................................................................................... 6 6 Calibration ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Calibration EEPROM Map .................................................... ...

SignalCore, Inc. 4 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual 1 General Information Warranty This product is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one year from the date of shipment. SignalCore will, at its option, repair or replace equipment that proves to be defective during the warranty period. This warranty includes parts and labor. Before any equipment will be accepted for warranty repair or replacement, a Return Material Authorization (RMA) number must be obtained from a SignalCore customer service representative and clearly marked on the outside of the return package. SignalCor ...

of SignalCore, Incorporated. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. International Materials Declarations SignalCore, Incorporated uses a fully RoHS compliant manufacturing process for our products. Therefore, SignalCore hereby declares that its products do not contain restricted materials as defined by European Union directive 2002/95/EC (EU RoHS) in any amounts higher than limits stated in the directive. This statement assumes rel ...

SignalCore, Inc. 6 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual (2) IN ANY APPLICATION, INCLUDING THE ABOVE, RELIABILITY OF OPERATION OF THE SOFTWARE PRODUCTS CAN BE IMPAIRED BY ADVERSE FACTORS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO FLUCTUATIONS IN ELECTRICAL POWER SUPPLY, COMPUTER HARDWARE MALFUNCTIONS, COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEM SOFTWARE FITNESS, FITNESS OF COMPILERS AND DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE USED TO DEVELOP AN APPLICATION, INSTALLATION ERRORS, SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS, MALFUNCTIONS OR FAILURES OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING OR CONTROL DEVICES, TRANSIENT FAILURES OF ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS (HARDWARE AND/OR SOFTWARE), UN ...

of no more than 20°C above ambient temperature under normal operating conditions. Front Interface Indicators and Connectors The SC5317A is a PXIe-based RF downconverter with all user I/O located on the front face of the module. The SC5318A is a serial controlled core module, whose front face connections are shown in Figure 1. Signal Connections All signal connections (ports) on the device are female SMA-type. Exercise caution when fastening cables to the signal connections. Over-tightening any connection can ca ...

SignalCore, Inc. 8 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual Table 1. Status LED Indicator LED Color Description Green The device is functioning properly in the state that it is programmed for. Amber Indicates that all functions are on standby mode. Red Indicates that one or more local oscillators are not functioning correctly. Off No supply or supply error Table 2. Active Indicator LED Color Description Green An external interface port has accessed the device. Red Input supply voltage exceeded Off No current interface access Communication and Supply Connection Figure 1. Power and Digital IO Connector Power and comm ...

18 Reserved, Pull High to 3.3V or DNC 20 SRDY. This pin is serial ready for SPI Mini-USB Connection This is a mini-USB Type B connector for USB communication with the device using the standard USB 2.0 protocol (full speed) found on most host computers. The pinout of this connector, viewed from the front, is shown in the following table. PIN # USB Function Description 1 VBUS Vcc (+5 Volts) 2 D- Serial Data (neg) 3 D+ Serial Data (pos) 4 ID Not Used 5 GND Device Ground (also tied to connector shell) Reset Button (Pin Hole) Behind this pin hole is the reset button, only ava ...

SignalCore, Inc. 10 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual • The Power Conditioning and Digital Control Board contains the supply switcher that generates the needs rails for the RF modules and an onboard MCU that provides both the computation engine and interface between the user and the RF modules. The figure below shows how the modules relate to each other. Figure 3. Simplified Block Representation of the Downconverter Assembly Module The downconverter has only a single conversion stage that converts the RF signal to an intermediate frequency (IF) stage. The input range of this downconverter is from 6 GHz to 2 ...

The Input Path Switch Immediately following the capacitor is a RF switch to selectively direct the RF signal down two paths: 1. The default is the conversion path where the RF signal is converted to an IF. 2. The alternative path is directly to the RF output port, bypassing all means of frequency conversion. The upper frequency limit of this path is about 7 GHz, although path loss calibration is only up to 6 GHz. When the conversion path is bypassed, the conversion path and the internal LO are disabled by powering down. The RF Path The first device in the R ...

SignalCore, Inc. 12 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual The First Mixer and IF Path The mixer (RF mixer) of the downconverter is very critical as it sets the dynamic ranges of the device, both the signal-to-noise and third order IMD (DRIMD) dynamic ranges. The DRSNR and DRIMD are directly related to the mixer input compression point (IP1dB) and input third-order intercept point (IIP3). The IIP3 of the mixer is typically better than +18 dBm, and its P1dB is better than 5 dBm. In applications that require better signal linearity, it is recommended that the level at the mixer input is kept at -20 dBm or less. Typ ...

that the apparent linearity of the device is lower. To set the device for better linearity, the gain should be shifted to the output IF path, after the mixer, and reducing the gain in the RF path. The signal power level at the first mixer should be lower than -20 dB for improved linearity. Since the input signal is low, the relative SNR will be lower. But, as the first mixer and subsequent components experience lower power levels, the apparent linearity of the device is improved. When the device gain is bal ...

SignalCore, Inc. 14 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual have it remain powered on to maintain its temperature stability. Like the VCXO, it is also phase locked to the external source. LO Ports There are 2 selectable LO ports, one located in the front of the device and the other on the opposite end (rear). The port in the front is shared between the external LO and reference clock. A coupler exists internally to direct the 10 MHz reference signal to the internal LO circuitry for phase locking. The frequency range of the LO is between 6 GHz and 18 GHz and its signal can be doubled with the internal doubler to 26 ...

RF frequency value, eight bytes must be written; the sum of the 1 register byte and 7 data bytes. See the RF_FREQUENCY register of Table 5. The table provides a summary of the configuration registers, and each register is explained in detail. Table 4. Configuration Registers Register Name Reg Add Serial Range Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0 INITIALIZE 0x01 [7:0] Set to zeros [7:1] Mode SYSTEM_ACTIVE 0x02 [7:0] Set to zeros [7:1] Enable “active” LED SYNTH_MODE 0x03 [7:0] Set to zeros [7:2] F ...

SignalCore, Inc. 16 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual Bytes written 2 Bytes read 1 Bits Type Name Width Description [0] WO Mode 1 0 = turns off the active LED 1 = turns on the active LED [7:1] WO Unused 7 Set to zeros [7:0] RO Read back byte 8 Read 1 byte back is required for PXIe and RS232 Register 0x03 SYTHN_MODE (2 Bytes) This register configures the PLL loop gain of the local oscillator synthesizers. It also enables or disables faster tuning of the YIG based oscillator of LO1. Bytes written 2 Bytes read 1 Bits Type Name Width Description [1:0] WO Loop Gain 2 0 = low loop gain, improves phase noise > 50 k ...

future compatibility [7:0] RO Read back byte 8 Read 1 byte back is required for PXIe and RS232 Register 0x11 IF_FREQUENCY This register sets the final IF value. Bytes written 2 Bytes read 1 Bits Type Name Width Description [55:0] W Frequency word 56 Frequency word in milli-Hz (mHz), mHz used for future compatibility [7:0] R Read back byte 8 Read 1 byte back is required for PXIe and RS232 Register 0x12 LO_FREQUENCY This register sets the final IF value. Bytes written 2 Bytes read 1 Bits Type Name Width Descrip ...

SignalCore, Inc. 18 SC5317A & SC5318A Hardware Manual Bits Type Name Width Description 1 = enables the RF amplifier [7:1] W Unused 7 Set to zeros [7:0] R Read back byte 8 Read 1 byte back is required for PXIe and RS232 Register 0x15 ATTENUATOR This register sets the value of the device attenuators. Bytes written 4 Bytes read 1 Bits Type Name Width Description [7:0] W Attenuator value 8 In 0.25 dB LSB for IF, 1 dB LSB for RF [10:8] W The target attenuator 3 The attenuator number: 0 = RF Atten 1 = RF Atten [23:11] W Unused 13 Set to zeros [7:0] R Read back byte 8 Read 1 byte back is required for PXIe and RS232 ...

[3] W Invert Spectrum 1 0 = Sets the LO to invert the IF spectrum 1 = Sets the LO to not invert the IF spectrum [7:4] W Not used 14 Set to zeros [7:0] R Read back byte 8 Read 1 byte back is required for PXIe and RS232 Register 0x18 STORE_DEFAULT_STATE This register will store all current settings of the device into EEPROM and will become the default startup setting. Bytes written 2 Bytes read 1 Bits Type Name Width Description [7:0] W Unused 8 Set to zeros [7:0] R Read back byte 8 Read 1 byte back is required for PXIe and RS232 Register 0x19 DEVICE_ST ...