Designers often use multiple oscillators and buffers to deliver precise frequencies to various subsystems, increasing size, mass, and complexity. Microchip Technology announces the space-grade DSA504RT, a radiation-tolerant, six-output programmable clock generator designed to meet the complex timing needs of aerospace and defense applications.
The DSA504RT optimizes timing architecture by generating multiple precise frequencies with synchronized phases from a single reference source. This solution reduces the need for multiple discrete oscillators, decreases the total number of components, and improves the system failure rate (FIT). It also reduces power consumption and mass, and simplifies distribution networks to ensure all subsystems remain synchronized, even in harsh environments and in the event of GNSS failure or malfunction.
The DSA504RT, which incorporates a wide-spectrum APLL (Analog Phase-Locked Loop), two fractional and two integer dividers, plus six buffers, each of which can be configured as a differential driver (LVPECL, LVDS, or HCSL) or as a pair of single-terminate CMOS outputs, is characterized by extremely low jitter as low as 200 femtoseconds (12kHz–20MHz) and is compliant with PCIe® Gen 1–7 standards. This level of integration allows engineers to replace multiple crystals, oscillators, and buffers with a single device, thereby improving design reliability, reducing bill of materials costs, and simplifying design complexity.
“This clock generator device from Microchip represents a game-changer for space applications. It can offer a complete clock tree solution by providing three different clock families and up to six frequencies with their corresponding buffers and a range of selectable output control types,” said Maamoun Abou Seido, vice president of Microchip’s Timing Communications Group. “By replacing numerous oscillators, buffers, and synthesizers, the DSA504RT saves board space and reduces the number of components to improve FIT in these high-reliability applications.
The DSA504RT, available in QFN28 and CQFP32 packages, serves as an auxiliary device in complex aerospace and defense systems. It enables high integration of clock architectures on a single chip to distribute precise time references to FPGA-based subsystems and radiation-tolerant and resistant microcontrollers.
Microchip's acclaimed family of clocks therefore incorporates the DSA504RT, a space-grade device with an excellent cost-efficiency ratio that provides top-level timing with a reduced bill of materials and lower shielding costs.
