NAT-FMC-SDR4

The NAT-FMC-SDR4 is an FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) for wireless applications, especially Software Defined Radio (SDR). It works as radio frequency (RF) front-end, which means it converts RF signals to the digital JESD204B standard and vice versa.

The ADRV9009 RF transceivers offer the transmit / receive functionality for this purpose, with 200 MHz bandwidth per channel. The tuning range covers frequencies from 75 MHz to 6 GhZ.

The onboard JESD204B clocking makes the integration of high speed ADC / DAC FMCs easy.

Moreover, inputs for reference clock, sync, trigger, and 1pps signals enable multi-board baseband and RF-phase synchronization for massive MIMO and phased antenna arrays.

As a crucial part of the NATwireless system, the NAT-FMC-SDR4 supports one of the main traits of this solution: modularity on board level. Each FMC owns four front panel ports for RF connections to wireless networks (4x Rx, 4x Tx, 4x ORx). So a stack of two modules provides 8 Rx, 8 Tx, and 8 ORx channels.

The combination of one or two FMCs with the powerful FPGA carrier module  NAT-AMC-ZYNQUP-FMC functions as complete SDR entity called NAT-AMC-ZYNQUP-SDR4/8.

This unique combination of RF transceivers with large bandwidth on the SDR FMC and the powerful Xilinx Ultrascale Plus (ZynqUP) FPGA on the carrier add up to an ideal unified platform for wireless applications in AMC form factor.

Further features such as observation channels for Digital-Pre-Distortion (DPD) and flexible I/O i.e. for control of external PAs allow solutions for advanced applications.

Due to its mounting position, the FMC comes in two options:

• The NAT-FMC-SDR4-T alone is the right choice for operation as a single FMC with 4 radio interfaces.
• Operation of 8 channels requires the installation of a NAT-FMC-SDR4-M in the middle, between carrier board and second FMC, and an additional NAT-FMC-SDR4-T on top.

• FMC form factor

FMC Interface(s)

• VITA 57.1 FMC high pin count (HPC) connector
• 1 FMC slot (male) to connect to carrier board (NAT-FMC-SDR4-T) or
• 2 FMC slots (male/female) to connect to carrier board / 2^nd FMC (NAT-FMC-SDR4-M)

RF Interfaces

• 2x Analog Devices ADRV9009 dual RF transmitter, receiver, and observation receiver
• Maximum receiver bandwidth: 200 MHz
• Maximum tuneable transmitter synthesis bandwidth: 450 MHz
• Maximum observation receiver bandwidth: 450 MHz
• Multichip phase synchronization for RF- and baseband signals
• Multiboard synchronization
• JESD204B IQ sample data interface to FPGA
• Tuning range (center frequency): 75 MHz to 6000 MHz
• RX gain range: 30dB in 0.5dB steps

Front Panel Interfaces

• 4x Tx, 4x Rx, 4x ORx
• GPIO RF-Control
• 2x 7 GPIO 1V8 to RF Transceiver
• 2x 3 GPIO 3V3 to RF Transceiver
• 6x GPIO 1V8 to FPGA

Backplane Connectivity

• depends on carrier board

Clock (NAT-FMC-SDR4-T only)

• Analog Devices HMC7044 with JESD204B