Industry’s fastest 12-bit ADC clocks in at 4GS/s

20th February 2014

Nat Bowers

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Datasheet

Texas Instruments introduce what they claim is the industry’s fastest 12-bit ADC. Clocking in at 4GS/s (gigasamples per second), the RF-sampling ADC12J4000 supports the JEDEC JESD204B serial interface standard for data converters up to 8Gb/s. It is suitable for use in test and measurement, wireless and defence applications, such as spectrum analysers, munitions, digital pre-distortion feedback and radar.

Measuring just 9x9mm, Texas Instruments have also claimed that it is the smallest IC in its class. The ADC12J4000 combines the company's existing gigasample ADC IP with low-power digital processing blocks that provide digital filtering and down conversion. Potentially reducing signal distortion, this enables system designers to sample a large block of frequency spectrum at RF and down convert it to quadrature in the digital domain. Depending upon the decimation and link rate settings, the ADC12J4000 utilises the JESD204B serial interface standard to output data on 1-8 lanes, simplifying layout.

The ADC provides wideband RF sampling capabilities with more than 3GHz input bandwidth. Consuming 50% less power than competitive devices, the ADC12J4000 consumes just 1.9W. Additionally, it can perform some of the external signal conditioning typically handled by the FPGA at a total decimation at 4/8/10/16/20/32x, providing attenuation of approximately 80dB at 80% bandwidth, 44dB at 85% and 24dB at 90%. This enables system designers to filter higher frequency signals to lower data rates for their applications. Providing a low-noise power ratio of 48.5dB and noise floor of -149dBFS/Hz, the ADC enables system designs to sample at higher frequencies.

Texas Instruments have also released the ADC12J4000EVM evaluation module for $1,999 (USD). Enabling users to quickly evaluate the performance of the ADC, this evaluation module comprises the LMK04828 JESD204B clock jitter cleaner and LMX2581 ultra-low noise, wideband frequency synthesiser. When paired with the TSW14J56EVM JESD204B solutions platform, the ADC12J4000EVM can analyse complex and modulated signals, which can then be analysed with TI’s easy-to-use High Speed Data Converter Pro software.

TI also offers an IBIS model to verify board signal integrity requirements and an Op Amp to ADC Circuit Topology Calculator for anti-aliasing filter design and circuit topology. Additionally, support is available on the High Speed Data Converters Forum in the TI E2E Community.

Supplied in a 68-pin 9x9mm QFN package, the ADC12J4000 is available now. Contact Texas Instruments for pricing.