X64 ADC

Block: x64_adc (x64_adc)
Block Author: Jack Hickish, David George
Document Author: Jack Hickish

Contents

Summary

The x64_ADC block converts 64 analog inputs to digital outputs. Every clock cycle, the inputs are sampled and digitized to 12 bit binary point numbers in the range of [-1, 1).

Mask Parameters

Parameter Variable Description
ADC clock rate (MHz) adc_clk_rate Sets the rate of the ADC sampling clock. The ROACH clock is derived from the ADC clock and should be 4x the clock rate entered here.
Include SPI interface? spi If checked, includes the ports and logic necessary to set the ADC control registers via SPI.
GPIO bank ctrl_gpio The ADC SPI and reset interfaces are not routed through the ZDOK connector. This parameter selects which of the ROACH GPIO banks to use to control them.

Ports

Port Dir Data Type Description
sim[0:15] IN double sim<n> should be connected to analogue channels 4n:4n+3 to be digitized. Note: For simulation only.
sim_sync IN double Input should be high when channel 4n is present on input sim<n>. Note: For simulation only.
adc_rst IN Bool Active high reset signal, used to reset FIFOs and adc chip.
sdata IN UFix_8_0 Data to be written to the ADC registers over SPI. sdata[7:4] represents the register address, sdata[3:0] represents the new value to be written. Present only when SPI interface is enabled.
spi_strb IN Bool SPI write strobe. When a positive edge is detected on this port an SPI write is initiated using the data and address presented on input sdata. Present only when SPI interface is enabled.
dout[0:15] OUT Fix_12_11 Four consecutive values of the signal represent a single time sample from four channels, with dout<n> representing channels 4n:4n+3.
chan_sync OUT UFix_8_0 A signal which goes high when a sample from channel 4n is present on output dout<n>. The 8 bits of the signal are used to sync the 8 individual ADC chips on the ADC card.

Description

Background

The x64_adc block is an interface to the 64ADCx64-12 board developed by Rick Raffanti. The board is based around 8 Texas Instruments ADS5272 chips, each digitizing 8 signals at 12 bits resolution and up to 65MSa/s. The ADCs can be clocked by an on-board 50MHz oscillator, or an external clock source.

Connecting the ADC

The 64ADCx64-12 is a twin Z-DOK card. Only one can be connected to a ROACH board.

Clock Selection

The x64_adc card includes an on-board 50MHz oscillator, but can also be driven by an external clock.

Header J4 controls selection of the ADC clock source. Leave J4 open to use the on-board 50MHz oscillator, or jumper J4 to use an external clock applied across resistor R9 via pins 36 and 38 of header J13.

Reset signal

The reset pin is located on pin 4 of J13. This signal is active low, and should be held high for normal operation. The yellow block interface is configured to drive the ADC reset pin via GPIO<A|B>_0, depending on the block parameter specified by the user. Note that the reset on the yellow block interface is active HIGH. When the ADC is held in reset, data output on the yellow block data lines will be the value -1 for all channels, in Fix_12_11 format.

SPI Interface

Various ADC features (including test patterns) can be activated by using a Serial Peripheral Interface to set the registers as defined in the ADS5272 data sheet. Physical connections are as follows:
ADC pins
  • SCLK: pin 36, J12
  • SDATA: pin 38, J12
  • nCS: (ADC chip n): pin (20 + 2n), J12

ROACH pins

  • SCLK: GPIO<A|B>_2
  • SDATA: GPIO<A|B>_1
  • nCS: GPIO<A|B>_3

Where the GPIO port to use is determined by user-specified mask parameter. To write SPI registers, the “include SPI interface” option should be activated in the x64_adc yellow block parameters. This should expose the input ports “sdata” and “spi_strb” to the user. When a positive edge is detected on spi_strb, the data on sdata[3:0] is written to address sdata[7:4]. Currently, due to limited ROACH GPIO and lack of requirement, only one nCS signal is used by the yellow block. This can be connected to all ADC nCS pins, to write registers on all chips simultaneously.

Usage

The x64_adc block can take 64 analog input streams. The inputs are digitized to Fix_12_11 numbers between [-1, 1).

ADC Synchronization

The ADC card uses 8 separate chips, each providing its own clock over ZDOK to the FPGA. Rather than use all 8 clocks (some of which are not connected to clock enabled FPGA pins), a single clock is used, and the software calibration script File:X64 adc cal.txt is run to ensure that data from all ADC chips is properly aligned.

Note: There may be a problem while running this script as is. In case there is a problem While running the version available in the repository and throws the following error: unknown’x64_adc_ctrl’ variable, it can be fixed by adding the following line to the core_info.tab in the local repository (mlib_devel/blob/master/xps_base/XPS_ROACH_base/core_info.tab)

  1. IF# strcmp(get(b,’type’),’xps_x64_adc’)#x64_adc_ctrl 3 10000 100

Also, the following line of calibration script which is no longer supported by the ‘corr’ package can be removed (it seems this line was just meant for debugging).

fclk_sampled = self.bit_string((val0&0x0fff),12)

Data Output

The 64 channels digitized by the ADC are presented to the user as 16 data output signals. Each signal will cycle through four multiplexed channels every four clock cycles. For example, in four consecutive clock cycles a sample from channels 0,1,2,3 will appear on output “dout0”. In the following four clock cycles, the next time sample will appear. Output dout<n> is responsible for samples from channels 4n, 4n+1, 4n+2 and 4n+3. Physically, ADC chip m is responsible for channels 8m, 8m+1, …, 8m+7.
It is possible to identify the channels presented on each output by observing the chan_sync output, which is high when sample 4n is present on output dout<n>. The 8 bits of chan_sync give the sync flag associated with each of the 8 ADC chips. Proper calibration should ensure that all chips are synchronized. In this case, the chan_sync output should output zero, with the value 255 appearing once every four clocks.

Data Input

Data can be input for simulation using the sim<n> and sim_sync inputs. These inputs are passed straight to the dout<n> and chan_sync outputs, and should be controlled accordingly, taking into account the data output details above.