Scalable Coherent Multi-Channel SDR
VORTARIAN 4R2T-10G
VORTARIAN is a coherent multi-channel SDR platform featuring four RF receive channels, two RF transmit channels and an FPGA-based processing subsystem. It is optimized for applications requiring precise phase coherence, deterministic synchronization and ultra high dynamic range.
Measured performance
ADC clock jitter 30.4 fs RMS
integrated from 1 kHz to 10 MHz, at fS = 500 MHz
ADC SFDR >91.4 dBc
at 404–406 MHz, −2 dBFS (−12 dBm input)
DAC output jitter 172 fs RMS
integrated from 10 Hz to 100 MHz, at fOUT = 406.25 MHz
Typical measured values under laboratory conditions.
System architecture
High-speed converters feed the FPGA directly, allowing time-critical DSP functions to be performed before data leaves the processing board. Typical processing stages include digital down-conversion, filtering, decimation, channelization and application-specific signal conditioning.
A common low-jitter clocking architecture provides deterministic timing across the acquisition and transmit paths, while local memory supports buffering and intermediate processing of high-rate data streams.
Processed or raw I/Q data can then be transferred over dual 10GBASE-SR interfaces or forwarded to external compute accelerators for higher-level processing.
Technical specifications
| RF and data conversion | |
|---|---|
| Receive channels | 4 coherent RF channels, 50 Ω |
| Transmit channels | 2 coherent RF channels, 50 Ω |
| RF connectors | SMP standard; SMA available as an alternative option |
| ADC | 16-bit, 500 MSPS |
| DAC | 16-bit, 1 GSPS |
| Direct RF / IF sampling | 20 MHz to 1.4 GHz |
| Standard RX configuration | Optimized for 2nd-Nyquist-zone operation, 250 to 500 MHz, usable bandwidth is determined by the analog front-end filters |
| Alternative RX bands | Customer-specific frequency ranges within the direct-sampling range available through LC filter adaptation |
| ADC SFDR | >91.4 dBc at 404–406 MHz |
| RF front-end options | Application-specific RF mezzanine front-ends, extendable up to 75 GHz |
| Processing and memory | |
| FPGA | Efinix Titanium Ti375 |
| Processor | Hardened Quad-Core 32-bit RISC-V |
| Memory | 2× 8 Gb LPDDR4 |
| Clocking and synchronization | |
| External reference | 100 MHz external reference input |
| Internal reference | Ultra-low-phase-noise 100 MHz oscillator, ±25 ppm stability |
| Synchronization | Coherent multi-board synchronization capability under development |
| Connectivity and streaming | |
| Ethernet | 2 × 10GBASE-SR SFP+ |
| Data streaming | Continuous I/Q streaming after digital down-conversion |
| Software | GNU Radio compatible; MATLAB and Python integration supported |
| Power and mechanical | |
| Supply voltage | 10 to 14 V DC |
| Power consumption | 19 W typical; dependent on FPGA firmware configuration and workload |
| Board dimensions | 177 × 177 mm |
Applications
Coherent Multi-Channel SDR is intended for RF systems where phase coherence, dynamic range and deterministic timing across multiple channels are fundamental to the measurement itself. The combination of coherent acquisition, low-jitter clocking and FPGA-based real-time processing makes the platform particularly suitable for radar, direction finding, beamforming and distributed RF sensing.
Radar & RF Sensing
VORTARIAN is particularly well suited for radar and advanced RF sensing applications where high dynamic range and precise signal processing are critical. For narrowband signals, careful selection of the intermediate frequency can take advantage of the converter performance to achieve an SFDR approaching 95 dB under suitable operating conditions.
The large FPGA fabric provides substantial resources for digital down-conversion, filtering and high-resolution signal processing with significant processing gain. Signal-processing chains can use extended numerical precision, for example 24-bit or 32-bit representations, where preserving dynamic range throughout the digital processing path is important.
Processed or raw I/Q data can be streamed to external computing platforms for further analysis and acceleration, including GPUs and embedded computing platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson and Jetson Orin. For tightly coupled processing architectures, the digital receiver also supports PCIe connectivity, enabling high-throughput integration with external processors and compute accelerators.
Low-latency communications
VORTARIAN is also suitable for low-latency communication systems requiring deterministic real-time FPGA processing. The standard configuration can be used as a dual-channel modem with observation feedback for functions such as digital predistortion.
Wide-bandwidth communications
For wider-band communication systems, a customized I/Q version can provide four TX and four RX baseband channels, forming two complex TX and two complex RX paths. With 500 MSPS baseband I/Q conversion, this architecture can support baseband bandwidths of up to approximately 400 MHz per complex channel and is suitable for applications such as dual-polarization XPIC systems.
Documentation
RF mezzanine front-ends
For operation beyond the direct-sampling range, VORTARIAN supports application-specific RF mezzanine front-ends with frequency conversion, filtering and gain stages optimized for the target RF band.