The PZSDR Team Demonstrates 7-Board Phase Coherence
Last week we posted about the Crowdfunding debut of the PZSDR, a high-end US$8,749 SDR based on the AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+ XC ZU47DR RFSoC. It features a direct-sampling SDR with a 1 MHz to 6 GHz tuning range, 8RX/8TX 14-bit coherent channels with 5GSPS/9.95GSPS sampling rates.
The team at PZSDR wanted to share a guest post with us, showing how multiple boards can be combined in a phase-coherent manner. This enables a large number of elements for radar, radio astronomy, direction finding, and other applications. Their guest post is below, and is not written by us:
# Achieving 7‑Board Phase‑Coherent Synchronization with the PZSDR P047 Zynq RFSoC SDR
As phased‑array radar, massive‑MIMO and distributed spectrum‑sensing systems scale up, multi‑board phase‑and‑timing coherence becomes critical for good beam‑forming and reliable signal capture. Jitter and phase skew will directly degrade array performance.
The PZSDR P047 is built around the AMD Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC XCZU47DR. It integrates 8×ADC and 8×DAC channels with direct‑sampling coverage of 1 MHz‑6 GHz. The higher‑spec P047Pro shares exactly the same synchronization hardware design.
To validate large‑scale coherent operation, a 7‑board test configuration was assembled, delivering a total of 56 synchronized RF channels, representative for mid‑size RF‑array development.
Key Measured Results
- Channel‑to‑channel phase coherence across all seven boards stays within **±3°**.
- Phase relationships remain stable through multiple power‑cycles and are independent of power‑up sequence.
- The synchronization architecture delivers deterministic, repeatable performance when scaled to multiple units.
Our hardware demo illustrates this multi‑board locking behavior.
*Demo video captured using PZSDR P047Pro. The synchronization hardware is identical to the PZSDR P047.*
Prototyping Use‑Cases
With 7‑board phase‑coherent synchronization, the PZSDR P047 hardware can be used for prototyping several popular RF‑array applications:
- Phased‑array radar: Build multi‑channel coherent receive/transmit arrays for radar‑algorithm validation.
- Radio astronomy: Prototype multi‑element antenna arrays for capturing weak astronomical radio signals.
- Direction‑finding: Construct multi‑channel coherent‑receiver arrays for radio‑signal DF‑algorithm research.
- 5G massive‑MIMO test‑beds: Support coherent‑transceiver development for high‑throughput wireless R&D.
> Full test methodology and complete measured performance data are provided in the attached supplementary document.
References
- Crowd Supply campaign page: https://www.crowdsupply.com/
puzhi/pzsdr‑p047‑rf‑adc‑and‑ rf‑dac - Official product pages: https://www.en.puzhi.com
- GitHub repository: https://github.com/pzsdr
