Description

Intersil’s High-Speed ADC evaluation platform enables rapid testing and performance validation of the entire portfolio of low-power 8 to 14-bit, 40 to 500MSPS high performance Analog-to-Digital converters.

There are two components in the hardware portion of the evaluation platform: the daughter card and the motherboard. The ADC is contained on the daughter card, which routes power from the motherboard and contains the analog input circuitry, clock drive and decoupling. Each ADC has a dedicated daughter card design and part number.

The motherboard contains a USB interface, an FPGA and SRAM. The motherboard serves as the interface between the host PC and the ADC daughter card. The FPGA accepts output data from the ADC and buffers it in the SRAMs before passing it to the PC at a lower speed for post-processing. The motherboard interfaces to each of the individual daughter cards with a common connector design.

The software component is Intersil Konverter Analyzer, a graphical user interface (GUI) created with MATLAB™. A MATLAB Component Runtime engine is supplied, which executes a compiled version of the source code. Therefore, a stand-alone version of MATLAB is not required to run Intersil Konverter Analyzer. The GUI controls the ADC configuration through the SPI port, reads data from the motherboard and performs post-processing and display of the output data. Data can be viewed in the time or frequency domain, and can be saved for later processing. Critical performance parameters such as SNR, SFDR, harmonic distortion, etc. are calculated and displayed on-screen when viewing in the frequency domain.

Schematics and layouts for the evaluation boards are linked to the individual product pages and are available in PDF format.

Ordering Guide

This table shows the appropriate evaluation kit part numbers based on the ADC that is to be tested: High-Speed ADC Evaluation Board Ordering Guide.

Quick-Start: First-Time Installation

1. Download the Matlab Component Runtime installer (MCRInstaller.zip, 140MB)
2. Download the Intersil Konverter Analyzer installer (IntersilKonverterInstallerV1.15.6c.exe)
3. Download the Konverter Installation Guide (AN1434) and follow the detailed instructions contained within that document

After the software is installed, read the Intersil Konverter Analyzer User’s Guide (AN1433) for detailed operating instructions.

Software Update

The Intersil Konverter Analyzer GUI can be updated to the latest version as follows:

1. Uninstall Konverter: Start Menu All Programs Intersil Konverter Analyzer Uninstall
2. Download and run the Intersil Konverter Analyzer installer (IntersilKonverterInstallerV1.15.6c.exe)

It is not necessary to update the Matlab Component Runtime engine.