Post Go back to editing

AD9912:Signal drift, the output signal is not stable

Thread Summary

The user experienced frequency instability and drift with the AD9912 DDS when using a 1GHz system clock. The issue was resolved by ensuring the S4 pin was correctly connected and not pulled down. The user also inquired about increasing the output power from DAC_OUT and DAC_OUTB to -2 dBm by adjusting the DAC_RSET resistor to achieve a 1V peak-to-peak voltage swing.
AI Generated Content

Hi! I have some probelem when using AD9912. I have an input sysclk of 1GHz(system pll bypassed), and i set the FTW register to a fixed number, but i got a signal whose fequency is not fixed. In theory, the output shouldn't be drifting, are there some issues i failed to notice? Thanks for help!

Parents
  • Yes, the output frequency of a DDS is proportional to the system clock frequency (1GHz, in your case). The stability of the output frequency is identical to the stability of the system clock frequency. If sysclk is stable, then the output will be stable.

    With the PLL bypassed we can rule out the possibility of an improperly configured PLL.

    Are you using an AD9912 Evaluation Board or a custom design? How are you measuring the frequency?

  • I have messured the input system clock, and it is very stable, a sine wave of 1GHz. I am using on a custom design and measure the output signal with Spectrum Analyzer. I don't konw whether i set the correct value to disable the internal PLL, are there any suggestions on checking the register value? Thanks for answering.

  • Be aware that the four status pins (S1-S4) establish the initial device configuration at power-up. It is possible, that at power up, the device is NOT bypassing the PLL (see Power Up section of the data sheet -- Table 8 in particular). Make sure the S4 pin has a pull-up resistor, which results in the PLL being bypassed at power up.

    Also, for applications that bypass the PLL, the data sheet recommends connecting a 1kΩ resistor from the LOOP FILTER pin (pin 31) to GND.

Reply
  • Be aware that the four status pins (S1-S4) establish the initial device configuration at power-up. It is possible, that at power up, the device is NOT bypassing the PLL (see Power Up section of the data sheet -- Table 8 in particular). Make sure the S4 pin has a pull-up resistor, which results in the PLL being bypassed at power up.

    Also, for applications that bypass the PLL, the data sheet recommends connecting a 1kΩ resistor from the LOOP FILTER pin (pin 31) to GND.

Children