Industry’s highest-performance wideband RF PLLs

4th March 2016

Nat Bowers

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Texas Instruments has introduced what the company has claimed as the industry’s highest-performance PLLs with integrated VCOs. Delivering 1.8GHz carrier open-loop VCO phase noise of -144.5dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset, the LMX2582 and LMX2592's single-chip architecture helps designers achieve a level of performance previously possible only through several discrete devices.

These wideband devices support output frequencies of up to 9.8GHz, allowing a single device to support various frequency bands in end applications including test and measurement, defence, microwave backhaul, satellite and wireless communications equipment.

Best-in-class VCO phase-noise performance positions these devices as the industry’s first PLLs with integrated VCO to meet the multicarrier wireless GSM Communication standard.

Featuring the industry’s lowest normalised PLL noise floor at -231dBc/Hz and the highest phase-detector frequency of 400MHz, the devices enable a very low integrated noise of 47fs RMS jitter. The devices meet the low noise floor requirements for clocking high speed data converters like TI’s industry-leading RF sampling ADC12J4000.

Eliminating the need for multiple narrowband devices, the LMX2592 supports 20MHz to 9.8GHz and the LMX2582 supports up to 5.5GHz, allowing designers to use one PLL for a range of wideband system designs. The devices’ spur-removal technique can eliminate integer boundary spurs, enabling designers to improve channel density of their designs.

Integrated LDOs manage power-supply variations and improve noise immunity. A channel divider lets designers configure up to two differential outputs.

Engineers can quickly and easily evaluate the performance of the LMX2592 and LMX2582 with the LMX2592EVM and LMX2582EVM evaluation modules available for $299 from the TI store and authorised distributors.

TI's WEBENCH Clock Architect online design tool simplifies the design process for a designer using the LMX2592 and LMX2582, as well as TI’s other clock and timing devices. The tool can recommend a single- or multiple-device clock-tree solution from a broad database of devices. It features PLL loop filter design, phase-noise simulation and the ability for designers to optimise clock-tree designs for their performance and cost requirements.

Support is available in the TI E2E Community Clocks and Timing forum, where engineers can search for solutions, get help, share knowledge and solve problems with fellow engineers and TI experts.

The LMX2592 and LMX2582 are available now in a 40-pin, 6x6mm QFN package. The LMX2592 is priced at $19.00 and the LMX2582 is priced at $9.00, each in 1,000-unit quantities.