The AD-FMCOMMS2-EBZ is a high-speed analog module designed to showcase the AD9361, a high performance, highly integrated RF transceiver intended for use in RF applications, such as 3G and 4G base station and test equipment applications, and software defined radios. Its programmability and wideband capability make it ideal for a broad range of transceiver applications. The device combines an RF front end with a flexible mixed-signal baseband section and integrated frequency synthesizers, simplifying design-in by providing a configurable digital interface to a processor or FPGA. The AD9361 chip operates in the 70 MHz to 6 GHz range, covering most licensed and unlicensed bands. The AD-FMCOMMS2-EBZ board comes specifically tuned and optimized to 2.4 GHz and due to the limitations of the on-board discrete external components, it may exhibit diminished RF performance on some other programmed configurations. The chip supports channel bandwidths from less than 200 kHz to 56 MHz by changing sample rate, digital filters, and decimation, all programmable within the AD9361 itself.
The AD-FMCOMMS2-EBZ provides RF engineers the ability to connect the AD9361 to a RF testbench (Vector Signal Analyzer, Signal generator, etc) and measure performance. The external components (which can easily be swapped) on the AD-FMCOMMS2-EBZ have a narrower RF tuning range 2400 – 2500 MHz. It is expected that most engineers will change these external components (pin for pin replacements from various vendors are available) for their specific application/frequency of interest. Anyone interested in a wider tuning range board should look at the AD-FMCOMMS3-EBZ.
