ADF4158 + HMC391 PCB

This project is a PCB that contains an ADF4158 direct modulation/waveform generating fractional-N frequency synthesizer and a HMC391 3.9 - 4.45 GHz VCO. The board is primarily intended as an LO source for a 10 GHz FMCW radar inspired by the ADALM-PHASER. The VCO output can be used with a subharmonic mixer and an IF around 1.6 GHz to cover the 10 - 10.5 GHz amateur radio band.

The board runs from a 12 - 16 VDC supply, exposes all the control pins of the ADF4158 in a 2.58 mm pin header (3.3V logic) and includes an optional 10 MHz reference input. The BOM cost is around 45€.

The PLL loop filter has been design with ADIsimPLL. The design file is ADF4158_HMC391.pll.

Outputs

Outputs for the latest commit in the main branch are built by CI and published to Github pages. Additionally, outputs for each commit are published as a Github artifact.

• Schematic PDF
• PCB PDF
• Gerbers
• ERC report
• DRC report
• PCB top 3D render
• PCB bottom 3D render

BOM

The BOM for this project is available as a DigiKey list.

PCB fabrication

The PCB is intended to be fabricated on JLCPCB using the following options:

• Base material: FR-4
• Layers: 2
• Deburring/Edge rounding: Yes
• PCB thickness: 0.6 mm (50 ohm RF traces are designed for this stack up)
• Surface finish: LeadFree HASL (HASL with lead is not available with 0.6 mm PCB)
• Min via hole size/diamager: 0.3 mm (0.4/0.45 mm)

These options are very inexpensive: $5.80 for qty. 5, $9.00 for qty. 30.