Output sawtooth wave to AD9144

I am grateful for your attention to my post.
I feel encouraged by the help of experts.

The following is a fragment of the plot.

This is a new plot obtained after posting.
The height of the saw blade is +50 count at the peak and -50 count at the valley.
I expect you to find something in the middle of the slope connecting the peaks and valleys.
The slope is formed by changing the count along time.
I guess this is the same as your "time domain".
According to customer's explanation, something happens where the data switches from all zero to all FF.
I have never touched the DPG Downloader, but I guess that this plot is not from the DPG Downloader.

After posting, I guessed that the something was noise from other places that occur along time.
The case assumed by me is that one of the measuring instruments generates noise along the measurement cycle.
I requested the customer to try some waveforms.
The result denied my hypothesis.
Something occurred along the count and did not occur along the cycle.

I requested a customer a + 100 to 0 sawtooth.
Something appeared in the bottom of the saw (0: all zero to all FF points).

I requested the customer a sawtooth wave from 0 to -100.
Something did not show up.

I am sorry, I regret that I do not understand your "vector".
I hope the information is not insufficient.

Best regards

Hi Mochi,

A circuit design issue wouldn't be my first guess, as the AD9144 had been on the market for a few years now.

Can you post a plot of the output?

Was the sawtooth waveform vector generated in DPG Downloader?

I am not entirely clear on what you mean by sawtooth wave "count". Are you referring to the sample values, in time domain?

Do you see the glitch at the midscale of the DACs full scale range if you add a small DC offset? Or does it stay with the vector's midscale?

If you are playing a vector, you need to make sure it wraps around properly. Or make it longer with multiple cycles and use a trigger on start. Making it longer could help in either case.

Best Regards,

Arik

Hi Mochi,

I think I caught a few questions here, let me try to clarify:

vector is simply a "vector of samples", so effectively the .txt that holds the samples you feed into the DAC. These are the samples that define your sawtooth signal.

time domain, as opposed to frequency domain, is just another way to view the signal. So the plot you showed is a time domain plot. If you played this sawtooth into a spectrum analyzer, or did an FFT on the time domain samples, you would get the frequency domain representation of that signal.

per your comments, it sounds like the glitch is due to the sample transitions, so NOT the midscale of the DAC full-scale range, but rather related to bit transitions in the DAC core itself.

Let me think about this a bit more..

Best Regards,

Arik

Thank you.
I am negotiating to present my customer 's vector data to my customers.

Best regards

Hi

I upload vector data.
This is data of T = 200 nS, + 100 count → -100 count.

I confirmed to the customer, the phenomenon is going on the customer's board.
I encourage customers to monitor digital supplies.

Best regards

Hi Mochi,

My guess is the issue is related to the point in the vector where all 1's trnsition to all 0's.

likely a load regulation issue on the digital supply. Consider checking the digital supplies during the transition on a scope, comparing against the DAC output: it is possible the issue is simply to the available charge during the transition, in which case adding a bulk capacitance (say 10-20uF) near the DAC could help.

If a scope isn't available, an interesting test would be to compare data vectors that are 2's complement vs. unsigned. In this case the glitch should move by a few samples. The data format is configurable at the AD9144:

this would simply confirm the issue, not fix it.

Was the issue noted on an AD9144 EVB, or was it on the customer's board?

Best Regards,

Arik

Hi

My customers confirmed the power supply with an oscilloscope, but they say that they can not find fluctuations synchronized with the glitch.
The power supplies they have confirmed are AVDD33, PVDD12, CVDD12.DVDD12, SVDD12 (VTT), IOVDD (SIOVDD33).
They said that they were monitored at both ends of the capacitor furthest from the power supply regulator.

The circuit of the power supply regulator follows FMCDAQ2.
Each system of 3.3 V and 1.2 V system is supplying power to each terminal of DAC through LPF (chip bead and 4.7 μF capacitor).

They are saying to try adding capacitors to the power supply system.

By the way, I'm wondering, can the glitches shown by customers be found on the evaluation board with meticulous observations?
Also, if they evaluate the output waveform in the frequency domain, is it likely to be a problem?

Best regards

Hi mochi,

I'd suggest for you to get an EVB to try this on. The customer may benefit from one long-term as well, to compare against their own board.

We had never noticed any INL/DNL issues of this kind during development, not on the EVB either. The issue is likely on the customer board, with the layout, power supply section, or the vector. 

Have you tried switching between 2's comp and unsigned vectors?

Do you generate the vectors using DPG Downloader?

Best Regards,

Arik

Hi
My customer confirmed this matter using EVB.
Please see the attached file.

My customers claim that something similarly occurs in the EVB.
When I posted, the customer had trouble in controlling the FPGA.
Now the customer overcomes the trouble, the EVB and customer's board are using the same input procedure.

I am asking customers to evaluate in the frequency domain.
However, there are no results yet.
Please let me know your view on something.

Customers also care about crosstalk.
This is crosstalk coming from other channels of the AD9144.
Please also tell me about your opinion about this.

I apologize to you for 2's comp and DPG Downloader that it is not progressing.
I would like to know about 2's comp and DPG Downloader.

Best regards