Improve your time-to-market with this Richardson RFPD Design Accelerator.
The module is designed to interface directly with software-defined radios, such as those commonly implemented using Analog Devices’ Mixed-Signal Front-Ends (MxFE evaluation kits available here and here), or similar software defined radio, to obtain a complete mmWave system.
Up to four modules can be combined in parallel to create complex MIMO applications.
About RadioThorium
- Configurable
IF and IQ baseband input/output, TDD and FDD modes, internal and external LO reference.
- Cascadable
Control is provided via either SPI or USB interfaces. The interfaces can be cascaded (in series, up to 4 units) to support a single, external controller.
- Synchronizable
Eliminates the need for multiple controllers and simplifies timing and synchronization between units.
- >1 GHz Instantaneous Bandwidth
- Drives Phased Arrays
Stacking up to 4 RadioThorium modules is ideal for phased array applications.
RadioThorium Applications
- Software Defined Radio Applications
- Aerospace and Defense
- Advanced Wireless Communications Research
- Covers 5G NR Frequency Range
Hardware Overview
Additional RadioThorium Features
- The IF ports are designed for the 2 to 6 GHz range. Onboard user selectable filter banks provide 20, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1400 MHz bandwidths along with a bypass path option.
- On the low frequency side, both up and down conversion paths support I/Q and IF interfaces. On-board I/Q buffers allow direct connection to external, single-ended ADC/DACs operating at up to 6 GHz. Programmable low pass filters (LPFs) in the buffers help reduce out of band spurious signals.
- RadioThorium can be used for either Time Division Duplex (TDD) or Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems. The UC and DC paths have a single reference source for synchronization purposes but have separate, high-performance, local oscillators (LOs) for FDD applications. Inputs on each path are also available for injection of external LO and clock sources.
- Control of the card is provided via either SPI or USB interfaces. The control interfaces can be cascaded (in series) to support a single, external controller. An API Control Interface Specification is provided with detailed command and timing information. Two control modes are available. The first is a console API based on SCPI/488.2. The second is a 32-bit binary structure, for automated control and timing of critical applications.