Online Evaluation Tool From Analog Devices Simplifies IC Selection

Using parametric data to mathematically model the general behaviour of a selected DDS IC, it allows designers to enter the desired operating conditions, evaluate the quality of the circuit’s sine wave and view the resulting harmonic images.

“With ADIsimDDS, we leveraged our DDS expertise and online simulation tool leadership to take the guesswork out of the equation, and reduce design time,” said David Kress, director of applications engineering at Analog Devices. “As is the case with our entire suite of ADIsim tools, designers can quickly and efficiently conduct real-time simulations, trial-test various configurations, get help with support software and troubleshoot potential problems when implementing DDS ICs in their design.”

The ADIsimDDS tool allows designers to choose a DDS IC from among ADI’s portfolio of products and set general parameters, such as the desired reference clock frequency, output frequency and number of reference clock multipliers required. By observing the behaviour of the DDS IC within these parameters, designers obtain a real-time representation of the circuit’s harmonic images and sine wave quality. To assist designers in choosing a filter, the tool is especially effective for frequency planning, which helps minimise the complexity of the filter's design.

Designers who are not familiar with DDS ICs will benefit from the tool’s ability to troubleshoot potential problems. For example, interactive message flags issue a series of warnings if a circuit configuration may lead to operational issues or if the circuit would degrade overall system performance. This feature helps to ensure that each circuit meets performance characteristics, greatly reducing the possibility of costly, time-consuming circuit redesigns. National Instruments’ LabVIEW – a software tool for designing test, measurement and control systems – provides ADIsimDDS with a familiar graphical user interface (GUI) and processes related computational tasks.

Also included in ADI’s suite of online and downloadable evaluation tools are ADIsimADC, ADIsimPLL, ADIsimOpAmp and ADIsimCLK – for evaluating ADCs, PLLs, operational amplifiers and clocks, respectively.