[time-nuts] sysclock source for AD9912 DDS?

ben bloom bbloom at gmail.com
Mon Dec 30 12:13:03 EST 2013


My lab has had good luck with the ADF4350 eval boards as clock generators.
The snippet description on the analog devices website of them is incorrect
though, they can accept a 10 MHz clock ref.  The datasheet is definitely
more accurate than the description.

  -Ben


On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 9:36 AM, Jim Lux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:

> On 12/30/13 7:56 AM, Anders Wallin wrote:
>
>> I've tested the AD9912 evaluation board:
>> http://www.anderswallin.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/
>> dds_test_2013-12-30.png
>>
>> I want to use it with a 10MHz external input clock, but it looks like the
>> on-board PLL that generates a 1200MHz sample clock from my input isn't
>> that
>> great, since I get strong side-bands on the output that are only 18-20 dB
>> down from the fundamental.
>>
>> So it looks like I need to supply a clean 800-1000MHz clock to the DDS to
>> get a clean output. Any ideas/suggestions for generating this from a 10
>> MHz
>> sine?
>> Driving the DDS system clock from an expensive RF generator (e.g. HP
>> 8648A)
>> would be possible but I'd prefer a PLL from 10MHz if it's doable
>> simply/cheaply.
>>
>>  Most of the time, they're expecting you to filter the output of the DDS
> to remove the spurs.
>
> Probably not a PLL, at least not one of the generic PLL chips, because
> you'll get spurs and sidebands from the comparison frequency in the loop,
> and they'll be fairly close in.
>
> You have two basic alternatives.. a PLL using a divider from your 1 GHz
> and using the 10 MHz as the comparison frequency, and then good filtering
> to get rid of the 10 MHz spurs. A bit challenging since that's a <1%
> bandwidth filter. (maybe you could do that with the onchip reference
> generator, and feed it back in)
>
> Or, You want a straight out multiplier chain with appropriate filtering in
> between stages.  Maybe a x7, followed by 70MHz BPF (which should be readily
> available), then another x7 to 490 MHz, then a x2 or x3.  Or end with a x5
> (to 350 MHz) and a x3 to 1050.
>
> A sort of hybrid approach might also work.. take your 10 and make
> 100MHz(x5 x2) with it, then feed that into your DDS. That will put the
> spurs 100 MHz away, which is a lot easier to filter than spurs that are 10
> MHz away.
>
> I'm pretty sure Wenzel has some application notes on this.
>
> When you say "clean", how clean do you need it?  What sort of tuning range
> are you going to run the DDS over? (maybe some of the spurs will wind up in
> places you don't care about and can filter out)
>
>
>
>
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