PHOENIX – Avnet showcases latest RF and mmWave technology at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS), June 11-16, 2023, in San Diego, Calif. Participation includes presenting three industry workshops, showcasing five demos and demonstrating the latest technology at the Avnet-Fujikura-Otava booth #2514.
In addition, the recently announced Avnet-Fujikura 5G mmWave PAAM Development Platform will be demonstrated at the Avnet-Fujikura IMS Conference Booth. It will also be used during the IMS Workshop, “Validating a CATR Benchtop OTA Test System for 5G FR2 Phased Array Antenna R&D Testing.”
This platform enables customers to quickly develop and prototype advanced 5G mmWave systems using AMD’s ZynqTM UltraScale+™ RFSoC Gen3 and Fujikura’s FutureAccess™ Phased Array Antenna Module (PAAM), controlled by the Avnet RFSoC Explorer® MATLAB dashboard. This combination of leading-edge RF system-on-chip, mmWave beamforming array, and intuitive software allows customers to quickly prototype with Fujikura’s compact PAAM and AMD’s RFSoC.
“Attendees of IMS will see firsthand how Avnet’s strategy of developing full platforms can help them with faster prototyping and reduced time to market in the complex area of RF and mmWave,” said Jim Beneke, vice president of Advanced Applications Group, Avnet. “Avnet’s theme for the show is Architecting Phased Array to Bits Solutions reflecting our collection of demos from antenna to bits.”
A full list of Avnet’s workshops and demos follows:
Workshops
Balancing Tradeoffs: Taming Signal Integrity Challenges in mmWave Atenna-to-Bits Implementations; presented by Samtec, Otava, Mathworks, Avnet, and Rohde & Schwarz
Validating a CATR benchtop OTA test system for 5G FR2 phased array antenna R&D testing; presented by Rhode & Schwarz, Fujikura Ltd, and Avnet
Co-design Techniques for wideband mmWave and SatCom Phased Array Systems; presented by Otava Inc., Mathworks, Avnet, and Rohde & Schwarz
Demos at the Avnet-Fujikura IMS Conference Booth:
Avnet XRF SOMs: AMD Zynq™ Ultrascale+™ RFSoC-based plug-on SOMs (system-on-module) enable distributed, very large channel count RF for RADAR and SDR demonstration
Based on the AMD Zynq Ultrascale+ ZU39/47/48/49 RFSoC with 6 GHz IF bandwidth, Avnet XRF SOMs provide developers with a turnkey, versatile, field-ready deployment platform for wide channel count RADAR and SDR applications. Customers can cascade 16 or 32 channel SOM modules to create huge arrays of RF inputs and outputs, then embellish proven carrier designs to add application-specific functionality such as analog filters or VGAs, digital communications ports to create complete, semi-custom solutions in a fraction of the time for in-house designs.
FutureAccess™ 5G mmWave 28GHz Calibration-Free Phased Array Antenna Module (PAAM) – Accelerated Antenna-to-Bits Prototyping and System Development demonstration
The Fujikura FutureAccessTM Phased Array Antenna Module (PAAM) is a fully integrated design consisting of the antenna array, beamforming ICs, frequency conversion ICs and filters. This product is the result of Fujikura’s long-term investment into the development of RFIC modules across the mmWave spectrum. The Avnet-Fujikura 5G mmWave Development Platform enables evaluation of the hardware for 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), mobile wireless access (MWA), backhaul and 5G private network applications. Antenna-to-bits prototyping is accelerated by combining the Fujikura 28GHz PAAM, AMD RFSOC ZCU208, and Avnet RFSOC Explorer® GUI for MATLAB® into a single platform. The PAAM is validated utilizing Rohde and Schwarz’s ATS800B benchtop CATR OTA test system.
Ultra Linear SOI Tunable Filter Technology demonstration
The vision for space, 5G, 5G NTN and 6G platforms for both commercial and civilian applications is ubiquitous connectivity. The arduous task of suppressing unwanted signals is the filter’s responsibility at various points of the RF transceiver chain. Otava revisited the filter design and made it very small, low profile, affordable, best power handling, and most importantly, tunable. Otava will demonstrate the filter band on the fly of OTFL101, OTFL201 and OTFL301 silicon filters ranging from 2-7 GHz, 10-20 GHz and 24-40 GHz, respectively, using the built-in digital CMOS controls with Rohde & Schwarz ZNA43.
mmWave Wideband OTA Otava PAAM demonstration
Can be viewed at the Samtec booth. The Otava Phased Array Antenna Module (PAAM) is an 8×8, 64 Element Dual Polarization wideband 24-30 GHz array design. This scalable phased array targets wideband applications in the areas of Aerospace and Defense (A&D) and 5G mmWave FR2. The PAAM features the Otava OTBF103 wideband Beamformer IC and OTSW100 SPDT switch ICs as the building block components of the design. A communication link is demonstrated with the support of the Rohde and Schwarz SMW200A vector signal generator and FSW43 spectrum analyzer with 5G NR waveform generation and demodulation capabilities.
Wideband Satcom with the Avnet-Otava mmWave Radio Development Kit for AMD RFSoC Gen 3 demonstration
Can be viewed at the Mathworks booth. The next generation of high-capacity wireless systems demands not only high dynamic range, but also very wideband radios. Otava Inc. has built a 19-31GHz dual-channel transceiver, supporting Ka band operation for both 5GNR as well as Satcom applications. Built to interface directly with the AMD RFSoC Gen 3 platform, this direct RF-sampling radio design can also support up to a GHz of instantaneous signal bandwidth. This is the perfect starter kit to speed up the development of your next generation wideband phased-array system.
In addition, Otava Inc. will showcase the RF-to-bits performance of this mmWave kit, for high-bandwidth, high modulation order signals such as 256APSK, along with the capabilities and convenience offered by the MATLAB-based software from Avnet, the RFSOC Explorer.
