Windfreak Technologies SynthHD PRO v2

Preliminary Data Sheet v0.2d

Overview Description
10 MHz – 24 GHz Dual Channel The Windfreak Technologies SynthHD PRO is a 10 MHz
RF Signal Generator to 24 GHz dual channel software tunable RF signal
generator and frequency sweeper controlled and powered
Features
by a device running Windows or Android via its USB port.
• Amplitude calibration from 10MHz – 20GHz The SynthHD PRO’s dual independent channels can be
• Open source Labveiw GUI software control via USB configured to run as two different frequencies, or the same
• Run hardware functions with or without a PC
frequency with different phases. This allows its use in
• 32-bit ARM processor on board
• Two channel frequency, phase and amplitude control antenna beam steering applications or quadrature signal
• Quadrature (or other phase) LO signal generation generation commonly used in image reject frequency
• 0.1Hz frequency resolution conversion.
• 0.01 degree phase control on each channel The SynthHD PRO also has nonvolatile on-board flash
• 100uS RF lock time standard memory so it can be programmed to fire up by itself on any
• Up to +20dBm output power
frequency, power, sweep or modulation setting (and
• 0.01dB amplitude resolution
combinations thereof) to run without a PC in the field. This
• Over 50dB of power control
• Absolute power display on Software GUI makes for a highly mobile, low power and light weight
• 10MHz – 100MHz external reference input solution for your RF signal generation needs.
• Selectable 10 or 27 MHz internal reference output
Applications
• 2.5ppm internal reference accuracy
• Internal and external FM, AM, Pulse Modulation • Wireless communications systems
• Pulsed FMCW Chirp • Antenna beam steering
• External sweep, step and modulation trigger • Quadrature LO for image reject mixers
• 500 point frequency and amplitude hop table • RF and Microwave radios
• Dual channel frequency and amplitude lock • Software Defined Radio (SDR)
• Channel enable / disable saves energy • Radar including FMCW
• 5 Ultra low noise linear regulators on board • Automated Test Equipment (ATE)
• 3.0 X 2.15 inches not including RF connectors • EMC - radiated immunity pre-compliance testing
• USB or UART control via USB-C connector • Electronic Warfare (EW) and Law Enforcement
• Operation from 20GHz to 24GHz is uncalibrated • IP3 Two Tone Intermodulation Distortion Testing
• Quantum device research
• Plasma physics

SynthHD PRO Functional Diagram

© Windfreak Technologies, LLC. 2019. All rights reserved.

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 Contents

1 USB / UART WARNING .............................................................................................................................. 2

2 Characteristics ............................................................................................................................................. 3

2.1 Electrical Characteristics ......................................................................................................................................... 3

2.2 Thermal Operating Characteristics .......................................................................................................................... 4

3 Typical Performance ................................................................................................................................. 4

3.1 RF Output Power..................................................................................................................................................... 4

3.2 RF Output Harmonic Content .................................................................................................................................. 7

3.3 RF Port to Port Isolation .......................................................................................................................................... 8

3.4 Integer Boundary Spurs......................................................................................................................................... 10

3.5 Phase Noise and Jitter ........................................................................................................................................... 10

3.6 Intermodulation Distortion after an External Wilkinson Combiner ....................................................................... 14

3.7 Performance over Temperature ............................................................................................................................ 15

4 Device Information ................................................................................................................................. 17

4.1 Mechanical Dimensions ........................................................................................................................................ 17

4.2 Product Renderings ............................................................................................................................................... 18

1 USB / UART WARNING

The SynthHD Pro v2 was designed to work with, and ships with, a USB 2 cable. Use a USB 3 cable only when tapping into
the UART signals for 3.3V COM port control of the SynthHD Pro with your own microcontroller circuit. Using a USB 3
cable attached to a USB 3 port on a PC may have unknown consequences as the PC is not designed to see the SynthHD
UART signals and vv. See UART app note for UART usage instructions.

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2 Characteristics

2.1 Electrical Characteristics

Characteristic Notes Min. Typ. Max. Unit

Supply Voltage Suggested 2A minimum 4.7 5 5.5 V

Supply Current 420mA per channel 900 1200 mA

Standby Supply Current Both RF channels OFF 70 mA

RF Output Frequency Range 10 - 24000 MHz

Calibrated Frequency Range 10 20000 MHz

RF Output Power Maximum See graph 6 17 20 dBm

RF Output Power Minimum See graph -40 dBm

RF OFF Output Power 100% shutdown of RF section -90 dBm

RF Frequency Resolution Default is 100Hz selectable by Channel 0.1 Hz

Spacing Setting

RF Output Power Resolution 0.01 dB

RF Phase Resolution ** See note 1 0.01 °

RF Output Impedance 50 Ω

Internal Reference Frequency Selectable 10 or 27 MHz

Internal Reference Tolerance 2.5 ppm

External Reference Frequency Keep phase comparator less than 10 - 100 MHz
100MHz

External Reference Level Keep below 3.3Vpp +10 dBm

Trigger Internally pulled up -0.3 3.3 V

UART -0.3 3.3 V

Note 1: Phase tuning speed, phase resolution and carrier frequency are inter-related. Phase tuning speed slows as RF
carrier frequency and Channel Spacing settings decrease. Smaller Channel Spacing will have higher phase and
frequency resolutions but slower phase tuning speed. Going below 100MHz carrier with smaller Channel Spacing
than 100Hz may be prohibitively slow and/or erratic.

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2.2 Thermal Operating Characteristics

Description Notes Min Max Unit

Operating Temperature Without airflow or heatsinking -40 30 °C

Query internal temperature sensor with

Operating Temperature software and keep below 75C with airflow, -40 75 Internal °C
heat sinking or limited duty cycle.

3 Typical Performance

3.1 RF Output Power

The typical output power (per channel) of the SynthHD PRO is shown below. This graph is of raw
unleveled operation at both the maximum and minimum gain settings of the output variable gain section.
Gain is set via dBm power commands allowing output power levels anywhere in the range between the
minimum and maximum levels shown below. RF port power and frequency can be set independent of
each other. Power levels are settable in 0.01dBm increments. On board calibration is attained through a
look up table for each channel. Device calibration is performed at the factory and stored in onboard
flash memory. Calibration is good from 10MHz to 20GHz. Operation from 20GHz to 24GHz is
uncalibrated and unspecified. All parts of the signal chain have high quality voltage regulation, and the
D/A’s driving the VGAs have a 1% voltage reference controlling their outputs.

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 Note: +15dBm setting hitting max power limit above 12GHz

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3.2 RF Output Harmonic Content
The typical SynthHD PRO harmonic distortion is shown below for the second and third harmonics.
Also shown is a subharmonic created when generating fundamental frequencies above 15GHz. All
frequencies above 15GHz are generated with an RF doubler. This data is taken at a leveled fundamental
power of 0dBm.
If lower harmonic and subharmonic levels are needed, Windfreak Technologies suggest the use of low
cost SMA filters from Crystek and Minicircuits.
Example: Crystek Lowpass Filter – many cutoff frequencies, 1GHz example: CLPFL-1000, $25

Typical 100MHz waveform, both channels adjusted to 90 degrees offset (500MHz scope).

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3.3 RF Port to Port Isolation
Port to port isolation is shown below with both channels at 0dBm output power. One trace is taken with
a 3MHz offset between channels. The other trace is taken with a 20KHz offset between channels. The
20KHz offset places each signal within each other’s loop bandwidth and the leakage modulates each
other’s VCO control voltages where loop gain is high. Offsets inside the loop bandwidth will have
worse isolation. The below data is taken with both PLL_ICP settings at 15.

Note: Performance below 3.7 GHz continues to trend downward.

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 5GHz Port to Port Isolation Spectrum with +1MHz Offset
Note: The plot above shows the conducted port at 5.0 GHz. The terminated port is set at 5.001 GHz.
The spur location is at a 2MHz offset since the SynthHD Pro uses an RF divide by 2 circuit to achieve
5GHz. As the RF frequency decreases, the isolation spurs move out, until they are eventually outside of
the loop bandwidth and thus significantly attenuated.

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3.4 Integer Boundary Spurs
A mechanism for in band fractional spur creation in all fractional PLL’s is the interactions between the
RF VCO frequency and the internal 27MHz, internal 10MHz or arbitrary external reference frequency.
When these frequencies are not integer related, spur sidebands appear on the VCO output spectrum at an
offset frequency that corresponds to the difference in frequency between an integer multiple of the
reference and the VCO frequency. These spurs are attenuated when outside the loop filter which is
12KHz wide. By having two selectable internal reference frequencies of 10MHz and 27MHz the
problem is eliminated by switching reference frequencies when working around a boundary.
Example if using the SynthHD PRO 27MHz internal reference: For the fundamental VCO range of
3400MHz to 6800MHz the first integer boundary happens at 27MHz X 126 = 3402MHz, the next at
27MHz X 127 = 3429MHz and every 27MHz thereafter up to 6777MHz. Above and below the
fundamental VCO band the spacing will be affected by the RF doubler or RF divider respectively. If the
desired VCO operating frequency is 3402.01MHz this would give spurs 10KHz on either side of the
carrier that may be unacceptable. In this case, using the 10MHz reference would be suggested since its
closest integer boundary is at 3400MHz. Spurs 2MHz away will be attenuated to satisfactory levels by
the loop filter.

3.5 Phase Noise and Jitter

250MHz Phase Noise

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 1GHz Phase Noise

5GHz Phase Noise

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 10GHz Phase Noise

15GHz Phase Noise

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 20GHz Phase Noise

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3.6 Intermodulation Distortion after an External Wilkinson Combiner
It’s possible to lock both channels in both frequency and amplitude for easy tuning during IMD testing
of IP3 in passive and active components. The plot below shows two tones combined with a YL-70 0.5-
2.0 GHz KL combiner that has roughly 20dB of isolation between ports. The tones are centered at
1GHz and separated by 1MHz. This method will allow for IP3 testing below roughly +40dBm.

Two Tone Generation via Wilkinson Combiner

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3.7 Performance over Temperature
The SynthHD Pro has an algorithm to reduce amplitude drift over temperature. The user can specify 4
different control settings in the firmware.
0) No temperature compensation
1) Compensation only during a frequency or amplitude setting
2) #1 plus periodic adjustments every 1 second
3) #1 plus periodic adjustments every 10 seconds (factory default)
Temperature compensation 2 and 3 are turned off during active modulation. Frequency sweeps and
hops are only compensated for each step unless the setting is 0.
All subsequent temperature plots are based on an internal temperature measurement with temperature
compensation turned ON. When the SynthHD has one RF channel turned on in a lab environment with
moderate air flow at 25°C the internal temperature will usually be around 40°C.

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4 Device Information

4.1 Mechanical Dimensions

Weight is 4.4oz (125 grams)

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4.2 Product Renderings

Top USB Side

Bottom RF Side

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