May 27, 2015 – Analog Devices (www.analog.com, NASDAQ: ADI), a global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal processing applications, has released a 2.6 GHz ADC designed to meet high-bandwidth and dynamic range specifications for aerospace and defense applications. Featuring gigabit sample rates and 75 dBc spurious-free, dynamic-range (SFDR) performance at analog inputs below the 1.8 GHz band, the AD9625BBP-2.6 12-bit ADC is optimized to meet the frequency planning and signal sensitivity requirements of advanced electronic surveillance and counter-measure applications, such as radar systems, secure communication networks, and electronic signals monitoring. The newly released ADC is sold in a tin-lead (SnPb) package, eliminating the issues of performance degradation and additional costs associated with using alternative packaging materials susceptible to tin-whiskering (tin crystals naturally occurring on tin-plated surfaces), thereby ensuring high-reliability operation.

The AD9625BBP-2.6 ADC is the latest addition to ADI's broadband RF signal processing solution family. By providing entirely new dynamic range performance and packaging options for critical aerospace and defense applications where high reliability is essential, it enables superior signal extraction even in wideband, noisy RF environments.

Specifications of the AD9625BBP-2.6 12-bit 2.6GHz ADC

The AD9625BBP-2.6 boasts a noise floor of 150 dBFS/Hz and a spurious-free dynamic-range (SFDR) of 75 dBc for analog inputs up to 1.8 GHz. This level of performance means that designers can distinguish even weak signals as weak as one-quarter of conventional signals in the presence of noise, crosstalk, block sources, and interference sources. This ADC is designed for sampling broadband analog signals and is usable in the third-order Nyquist region. The widened input bandwidth enables the implementation of an enhanced RF sampling architecture that reduces the analog frequency down-conversion step, thereby decreasing noise and cost. As the system architecture becomes simpler, the need to insert multiple ADCs to achieve the required performance has been eliminated, and reconfigurable platforms can also be developed.

The AD9625BBP-2.6 simplifies the digital interface by integrating two digital-down converters, two NCOs, and a JESD204B serial connection for output data. Consequently, the requirements for output-data-rate are reduced, and board-level design and layout are simplified, increasing usability and functionality.

In addition, the converter's high-reliability SnPb package eliminates concerns regarding tin-whiskering, making it suitable for high-specification aerospace and defense applications. This eliminates the need for package replating, reballing, and PCB conformal recoating processes, which are expensive, time-consuming, and often required when using less stable materials for packaging, and which may not even be covered by manufacturer warranties.