D/A Converter Module

February 1, 2013

Pentek (Upper Saddle River, NJ) has released a D/A convertermodule for RF and IF waveform playback, the Cobalt® Model 71671. The module delivers four independent analog outputs, each through its own digital upconverter and 16-bit D/A with sampling rates to 1.25 GHz. An onboard Xilinx Virtex-6 FPGA provides turnkey waveform generation for output signal bandwidths from less than 1 kHz up to 250MHz, with an extended interpolation range from 2× to 1,048,576×. Users can also customize the module’s operation by implementing their own IP in the FPGA.

The Model 71671 uses two DAC3484 D/A converters fromTexas Instruments (Dallas, TX), each providing two digital upconverters (DUCs) and 16-bit D/A channels that can translate a quadrature (I+Q) baseband signal to a user-selectable IF (intermediate frequency) center for transmitting. Complementary synchronizer products deliver clock and timing signals to multiple 71671 modules for synchronizing, triggering, and gating functions. DAC3484 provides a maximum interpolation of 16x, and it accommodates input transmit signal bandwidths from 250 MHz down to 62.5 MHz.