Blog
By: Stuart Rumley
CEO & Founder of Valon Technology
​Frequency Versus Time We think of frequency sources such as RF and microwave signal generators as well controlled sources of frequency. It is easy to verify signal source performance using standard test equipment such as spectrum analyzers, frequency counters, or signal source analyzers. These instruments are fine so long as the signal source is relatively stable at a fixed frequency. But what if you need to analyze what happens as the frequency source slews from one frequency to another...?
DOES YOUR CLOCK JITTER?​
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Phase Noise Testing Quick phase noise tests can be made with a spectrum analyzer, and many spectrum analyzers have built-in phase noise measurement capability. But often times the phase noise requirement of the signal source under test exceeds the performance of the particular spectrum analyzer that might be available in your lab. Phase noise testing is likely to be a performance test that only needs to be done occasionally, during development for example, and is not necessary on a routine unit-to-unit basis. It doesn't make sense to have a $70k+ test instrument sitting around idly in your lab. Since phase noise analysis is a vital part of what we have to do in developing our signal source products, we have invested in the equipment to do the job. We routinely use test and optimize our products using our Berkeley Nucleonics 20GHz signal source analyzer. We can make phase noise measurements on your product too and provide you with tabular data, PN offset frequency plots, and jitter analysis. We can also help you improve your system by offering suggestions and showing you how to improve your product’s phase noise and stability. Contact us for a discussion on how we can help and provide you with an estimate.
Have you seen the March 2019 edition of National Geographic magazine?
The cover is titled "We are Not Alone". Our Valon Technology radio frequency synthesizer products are helping researchers at these radio astronomy sites all around the world.​
​In this blog, Stuart provides some background on why we developed it, its capabilities, and the challenges of delivering the best phase noise on the market at a very low price point.
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PHASE NOISE - OUR SECRET WEAPON
Lord Kelvin was right: If you can’t measure it, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
The key to designing and manufacturing high quality electronic equipment is the ability to make measurements on various parameters accurately, repeatedly, and quickly. With signal sources such as oscillators, VCOs, TCXOs, and frequency synthesizers, no parameter is more important that signal purity. The Holy Grail of signal purity is PHASE NOISE.
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PLL DEBUGGING - START WITH THE SIMPLEST SOLUTION FIRST
I’m past the age where most engineers would refer to me as old school. I’m nearly Jurassic. I still have HP spectrum analyzers on the bench. But over the years I’ve learned a few things about debugging and bringing up a new hardware design.
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VALON 5009 HINTS & TIPS - POWER SUPPLIES
We take great pride in having almost zero failures of our products.
Occasionally, I get a trouble call from a new 5009 frequency synthesizer user who says that the 5009 will not lock on frequency after power up. Usually it’s just one of the RF Sources that won’t lock. After doing some investigation the problem almost always is caused by the power supply.
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WHAT LIES BEYOND?
Have you ever been using a piece of test equipment and needed to go above or below the end of its range?
Ever wonder why the limit was a brick wall and you couldn’t get a few extra megacycles beyond?
Fortunately you don't have to wonder if you are using one of our Valon 5009 Dual Frequency Synthesizer modules​​
DUAL CONTROL OF A DUAL SYNTHESIZER
The Valon 5009 is dual-channel radio frequency synthesizer covering 23.5MHz to 6000MHz. There are two independent RF sources contained within the same module. The Operations Manual refers to these as Source1 and Source2. Both Sources are phase locked to the same internal or external frequency reference frequency and either Source can be controlled by the USB port using any terminal emulator program, our supplied 5009term.exe text based terminal program, or the provided V5009 Configuration Manager GUI.
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ELECTRONIC FREQUENCY CONTROL WITH THE 5009
Typically any RF synthesizer will provide a means to connect an external reference frequency in order to provide precise frequency and time synchronization. Most commercial synthesizers and signal generators will only work with 10MHz external references. The Valon 5009 Dual Frequency Synthesizer module will also accept external 10MHz references. However, a useful feature of the Valon 5009 synthesizer is that they will also lock to other external reference frequencies in the range of 10~100MHz or more depending on model.​​
CONTROLLING A VALON SYNTHESIZER WITH A RASBERRY PI
If you are looking for low-cost, low-power, light-weight way to control a Valon 5009 Dual Frequency Synthesizer module, then the Raspberry Pi is a good way to go. The Pi can control your 5009 using the free Minicom Linux terminal program to send and receive 5009 command line instructionS
The link below gives instructions on how to get and install the Minicom terminal program.
http://valontechnology.com/5009users/RPi.htm
Also found on this link are instructions on how to set up a Remote Desktop Connection to control the Pi remotely.​​
