Evaluation Kit Launched For CMX993 RF Quadrature Modulator IC

Essex, England: Low power wireless chip specialist, CML Microcircuits, has developed an evaluation kit (EvKit) for its recently launched CMX993 RF quadrature modulator IC. The CMX993 is a highly integrated, general purpose, RF quadrature modulator, offering 100MHz to 1GHz operation. The EV9930 EvKit provides a platform for the evaluation of this device. The company says that design engineers can achieve full evaluation of the CMX993, using the EV9930 (which is a fully populated board), giving access to all of the device's RF, baseband and control signals by either connectors or test points. These test access points are available to accept common test equipments such as RF and baseband signal generators and also spectrum analyzers.

Control of the CMX993 is by on-chip registers, which are accessible over the C-BUS interface (similar to an SPI serial interface). A PE0002 interface card (not supplied, but available from CML), allows the C-BUS interface to be controlled from a PC, via its USB port. Alternatively, the C-BUS interface can be controlled by an external microprocessor. The EV9930 baseband inputs can be configured to work with CML's CMX910 baseband processor (AIS) or the CMX981 baseband processor (digital radio), standard test equipment or with a custom baseband system.