Table of Contents
ADF4156 FMC-SDP Interposer & Evaluation Board / Xilinx KC705 Reference Design
Supported Devices
Evaluation Boards
Overview
This document presents the steps to setup an environment for using the EVAL-ADF4156SD1Z evaluation board together with the Xilinx KC705 FPGA board, the Xilinx Embedded Development Kit (EDK) and the Micrium µC-Probe run-time monitoring tool. Below is presented a picture of the EVAL-ADF4156SD1Z Evaluation Board with the Xilinx KC705 board.
For component evaluation and performance purposes, as opposed to quick prototyping, the user is directed to Analog Devices System Demonstration Platform (SDP). The SDP consists of a:
- a controller board, like the EVAL-SDP-CS1Z (SDP-S)
- a compatible Analog Devices SDP product evaluation board
- corresponding PC software
The EVAL-SDP-CS1Z controller board is Serial Interfaces Only, low cost, reduced functionality controller board. It has a USB to Serial Engine at its core. It connects to the PC through a USB 2.0 high speed port. The SDP-S has a single 120 pin connector and exposes SPI, I2C and GPIO interfaces to connected SDP daughter boards.
The EVAL-ADF4156SD1Z is designed to allow the user to evaluate the performance of the ADF4156 frequency synthesizer for phase-locked loops (PLLs). Figure 1 shows the board, which contains the ADF4156 synthesizer, an SMA connector for the reference input, power supplies, and an RF output. There is also a footprint for a loop filter and a VCO on board.
The ADF4156 is a 6.2 GHz fractional-N frequency synthesizer that implements local oscillators in the upconversion and down-conversion sections of wireless receivers and transmitters. It consists of a low noise digital phase frequency detector (PFD), a precision charge pump, and a programmable reference divider. There is a Σ-Δ based fractional interpolator to allow programmable fractional-N division. The INT, FRAC, and MOD registers define an overall N divider (N = (INT + (FRAC/MOD))). The RF output phase is programmable for applications that require a particular phase relationship between the output and the reference. The ADF4156 also features cycle slip reduction circuitry, leading to faster lock times without the need for modifications to the loop filter.
More information
- ADF4156 Product Info - pricing, samples, datasheet
Getting Started
The first objective is to ensure that you have all of the items needed and to install the software tools so that you are ready to create and run the evaluation project.
Required Hardware
- FMC-SDP adapter board
- EVAL-ADF4156SD1Z evaluation board
Required Software
- Xilinx ISE 13.4 (Programmer (IMPACT) is sufficient for the demo and is available on Webpack).
- uC-Probe run-time monitoring tool
Downloads
The following table presents a short description the reference design archive contents.
| Folder | Description |
|---|---|
| Bit | Contains the KC705 configuration file that can be used to program the system for quick evaluation. |
| Microblaze | Contains the EDK 13.4 project for the Microblaze softcore that will be implemented in the KC705 FPGA. |
| Software | Contains the source files of the software project that will be run by the Microblaze processor. |
| uCProbeInterface | Contains the uCProbe interface and the .elf symbols file used by uC-Probe to access data from the Microblaze memory. |
Run the Demonstration Project
Hardware Setup
Before connecting the ADI evaluation board to the Xilinx KC705 make sure that the VADJ_FPGA voltage of the KC705 is set to 3.3V. For more details on how to change the setting for VADJ_FPGA visit the Xilinx KC705 product page.
- Use the FMC-SDP interposer to connect the ADI evaluation board to the Xilinx KC705 board on the FMC LPC connector.
- Connect the JTAG and UART cables to the KC705 and power up the FPGA board.
- Start IMPACT, and double click “Boundary Scan”. Right click and select Initialize Chain. The program should recognize the Kintex 7 device (see screenshot below).
- Program the KC705 FPGA using the ”Bit/download.bit” file provided in the reference design archive.
- Power the ADI evaluation board.
At this point everything is set up and it is possible to start the evaluation of the ADI hardware through the controls in the uC-Probe application provided in the reference design.
Configure uC-Probe
Launch uC-Probe from the Start → All Programs → Micrium → uC-Probe.
Select uC-Probe options.
- Click on the uC-Probe icon on the top left portion of the screen.
- Click on the Options button to open the dialog box.
Set target board communication protocol as RS-232
- Click on the Communication tab icon on the top left portion of the dialog box
- Select the RS-232 option.
Setup RS-232 communication settings
- Select the RS-232 option from the Communication tab.
- Select the COM port to which the KC705 board is connected.
- Set the Baud Rate to 115200 bps.
- Press Apply and OK to exit the options menu.
Load and Run the Demonstration Project
- Click the Open option from the uC-Probe menu and select the .wsp file from the ucProbeInterface folder provided within the reference design files.
- Before opening the interface uC-Probe will ask for a symbols file that must be associated with the interface. Select the file ucProbeInterface/ADIEvalBoard.elf to be loaded as a symbol file.
- Run the demonstration project by pressing the Play button.
- In some cases it is possible that the uC-Probe interface will not respond to the commands the first time it is ran. In this situation just stop the interface by pressing the Stop button and run it again by pressing the Play button.
- After starting the uC-Probe interface wait until the status of the connection with the board displayed on the bottom of the screen is set to Connected. It is possible to use the interface only after the status is changed to Connected and the data transfer speed displayed next to the connection status is different than 0.
Demonstration Project User Interface
The following figure presents the uC-Probe interface that can be used for monitoring and controlling the operation of the EVAL-ADF4156SD1Z evaluation board.
Section A allows turning the communication with the Evaluation Board ON or OFF by toggling the switch. The green LED on the switch will turn on when communication is active. Before pressing the ON/OFF switch, make sure you select the desired Device Initialization Procedure. If the ON/OFF switch is set to ON and the Activity LED is BLACK it means that there is a communication problem with the board. See the Troubleshooting section for indications on how to fix the communication problems.
Section B allows controlling the output on MUXOUT. Set to 1 for DVdd, 2 for GND or 7 for SDO (can be used to test if communication with board is active).
Section C allows setting Fractional, Integer, Phase, Current, R Counter and Modulus Values. See pg. 17 of datasheet for calculated examples of these values.
Section D allows setting or clearing certain control bits in Register R2 and R3. See datasheet pg. 13 for details.
Section E selects Clkock Divider Mode.
Section F selects Clock Divider Value.
Section G is used to apply settings. After setting everything as desired, press this button to send data to the ADF4156.
Troubleshooting
In case there is a communication problem with the board the follwing actions can be perfomed in order to try to fix the issues:
- Check that the evaluation board is powered as instructed in the board's user guide.
- In uC-Probe refresh the symbols file by right-clicking on the System Browser window and selecting Refresh Symbols.
- If the communication problem persists even after performing the previous steps, restart the uC-Probe application and try to run the interface again.
More information
- Example questions:
- FMCOMMS TX DAC sample size hangup by AnalogDiode