AD9737A/AD9739A
Data Sheet
Rev. | Page 60 of 64
NONIDEAL SPECTRAL ARTIFACTS
artifacts that are not part of the original digital input waveform.
These nonideal artifacts include harmonics (including alias
(that is, dc to fDAC/2) reconstructing a 650 MHz, 0 dBFS sine wave
at 2.4 GSPS. Besides the desired fundamental tone at the 7.8 dBm
level, the spectrum also reveals these nonideal artifacts that also
appear as spurs above the measurement noise floor. Because
these nonideal artifacts are also evident in the second and third
Nyquist zones during mix-mode operation, the effects of these
artifacts should also be considered when selecting the DAC
clock rate for a target RF band.
09616-
105
–100
–90
–80
–70
–60
–50
–40
–30
–20
–10
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
P
O
W
E
R
(
d
Bc)
FREQUENCY (MHz)
HD3
HD5
HD9
HD6
HD4
FUND AT
–7.6dBm
fDAC/4 –
fOUT
fDAC/2 –
fOUT
fDAC/4
3/4 ×
fDAC/4 –
fOUT
HD2
Figure 186. Spectral Plot
Note the following important observations pertaining to these
nonideal spectral artifacts:
1. A full-scale sine wave (that is, single-tone) typically represents
the worst case condition because it is has a peak-to-rms
ratio of 3 dB and is unmodulated. Harmonics and aliased
harmonics of a sine wave are easy to identify because they
also appear as discrete spurs. Significant characterization of
a high speed DAC is performed using single (or multitone)
signals for this reason.
2. Modulated signals (that is, AM, PM, or FM) do not appear
as spurs but rather as signals whose power spectral density
is spread over a defined bandwidth determined by the
modulation parameters of the signals. Any harmonics from
the DAC spread over a wider bandwidth determined by the
order of the harmonic and bandwidth of the modulated signal.
For this reason, harmonics often appear as slight bumps in
the measurement noise floor and can be difficult to discern.
3. Images appear as replicas of the original signal, hence, can
internal modulation of the sampling clock at intervals
related to fDAC/4 generate image pairs at × fDAC, × fDAC,
and × fDAC. Both upper and lower sideband images
associated with × fDAC fall within the first Nyquist zone,
whereas only the lower image of × fDAC and × fDAC fall
back. Note that the lower images appear frequency inverted.
The ratio between the fundamental and various images (that
is, dBc) remains mostly signal independent because the
mechanism causing these images is related to corruption of
the sampling clock.
4. The magnitude of these images for a given device depends
on several factors, including DAC clock rate, output
frequency, and Mu controller phase setting. Because the
image magnitude is repeatable between power-up cycles
(assuming the same conditions), a one-time factory
calibration procedure can be used to improve suppression.
Calibration consists of additional dedicated DSP resources in
the host that can generate a replica of the image with proper
amplitude, phase, and frequency scaling to cancel the image
from the DAC. Because the image magnitude can vary
among devices, each device must be calibrated.
5. A clock spur appears at fDAC/4 and integer multiples of it.
Similar to images, the spur magnitude also depends on the
same factors that cause variations in image levels. However,
unlike images and harmonics, clock spurs always appear
as discrete spurs, albeit their magnitude shows a slight
dependency on the digital waveform and output frequency.
The calibration method is similar to image calibration;
however, only a digital tone of equal amplitude and
opposite phase at fDAC/4 need be generated.
6. A large clock spur also appears at 2 × fDAC in either normal
or mix-mode operation. This clock spur is due to the quad
switch DAC architecture causing switching events to occur
on both edges of fDAC.
C