Post Go back to editing

AD9361 Manual AGC: In-band amplitude drops with strong out-of-band blocker

Category: Hardware
Product Number: AD9361

Hello,

We are using ad9361 on a custom board (no OS driver), TDD mode.

Setup / configuration:
RX/TX LO: 2.3 GHz
RX RF bandwidth: 8 MHz
AGC: Manual AGC, split gain table
Split table index: 0x16
Received signal: CW at ~-50 dBm into RX antenna port
Blocker/interferer: strong signal transmitted to the same RX port at 2.1 GHz (out-of-band)

Observation
When the strong out-of-band signal at 2.1 GHz is present, the amplitude of the received baseband samples at 2.3 GHz is reduced (see attached plot: “No Jammer” vs “With Jammer”).
This happens even though AGC is set to manual and the gain table index remains fixed.

In this table index the iLNA gain is set to minimum = 3dB


What could cause the in-band amplitude reduction in this scenario?

Thanks

  • Hi  

    This happens because of how its BBPLL tracking filters and TIA/LNA gain behavior respond when a large out‑of‑band signal is present—even when you are in Manual Gain Mode.
    Please try with the following to improve the performance.
    1) Requested to look for disabling all tracking cals during manual gain.
    2) Pls use RX FIR filter to reject the out of band Blocker.
    3) Place a fixed RF bandpass filter in front of AD9361 to remove the strong OOB blocker before it reaches the LNA.
    Regards,
    SJ