Macnica Group introduced radio frequency solution with AD936X and Intel FPGA

Working with partner, Macnica Group introduced a RF solution based on ADI AD936X and Intel Cyclone V FPGA. It would help to shorten the time to market of customers’ products, and reduce the overall development burden. This solution is suitable for applications of wireless communication infrastructure, defense electronic system, RF testing equipment and instruments, and universal software defined radio platform etc.

Working with partner, Macnica Group introduced a RF solution based on ADI AD936X and Intel Cyclone V FPGA. Macnica Group provides development kit and module – the development kit could speed up customer’s product development, and the module could be directly used for mass production.

AD936X series RF Transceivers’ operating frequency range is from 70 MHz to 6 GHz. The transceiver is a complete radio design, single chip integrated solution. It integrates various functions, including a RF front end, mixed-signal baseband component, frequency synthesizer, A/D converter and direct-conversion receiver. AD936X supports channel bandwidth from below 200 kHz to 56MHz, and is highly programmable. It offers outstanding dynamic range, leading noise figure and linearity performance. It is also a cost-effective and low power consumption radio solution.

Intel Cyclone® V FPGA applied TSMC’s 28-nm low power (28LP) technique for development. It achieved low system cost and low power consumption. With its high performance level, this FPGA series should be an ideal choice for high volume application customers. Compare with previous generations, this series’ power consumption is 40% lower. It also possesses efficient logic integration function, and provides integrated transceiver model and ARM-based hard processor system (HPS) SoC FPGA model. 

Refer to graph 4 for programmable full frequency band RF development platform board:

可編程全頻段RF開發平台單板如圖2所示：

• RF Part applies ADI’s most advanced RF Transceiver AD9361. The whole RF part possesses the highest integration, the lowest power consumption and the highest flexibility. It supports bandwidth between 200KHz and 56MHz, and RF receiving frequency range from 70MHz to 6GHz.
• Digital Signal Processing Module applies Intel Cyclone V series FPGA (the default is A5). It is provided with DSP and Logic resources. The module also supports A2/A4/A7/A9 to facilitate customers’ selection according to specific conditions.
• Master Unit: Development platform applies STM32 series generic MCU to achieve monitor and network management function.

Refer to image 3 and 6 for RF module’s board and block diagram. FPGA applies 5CEBA5F23C8N (could be compatible with 5CEBA2、5CEBA4、5CEBA7、5CEBA9, according to customers’ choices). RF XCVR applies AD9361 (could be compatible with AD9363, AD9364 etc., according to customers’ choices). The module is in name card size

Macnica Group FAE team would provide technical support for the solution. We hope to help customers shortening the time to market, as well as reducing total development cost.