
AD5930
SETTING UP THE FREQUENCY SWEEP 
As stated previously in The Frequency Profile section, the 
AD5930 requires certain registers to be programmed to enable a 
frequency sweep. The following sections discuss these registers 
in more detail.  
Rev. 0 | Page 19 of 28 
Start Frequency (F
START
) 
To start a frequency sweep, the user needs to tell the AD5930 
what frequency to start sweeping from. This frequency is stored 
in a 24-bit register called F
START
. If the user wishes to alter the 
entire contents of the F
START
 register, two consecutive writes 
must be preformed, one to the LSBs and the other to the MSBs. 
Note that for an entire write to this register, the Control Bit B24 
(D11) should be set to 1 with the LSBs programmed first.  
In some applications, the user does not need to alter all 24 bits 
of the F
START
 register. By setting the Control Bit B24 (D11) to 0, 
the 24-bit register operates as two 12-bit registers, one 
containing the 12 MSBs and the other containing the 12 LSBs. 
This means that the 12 MSBs of the F
START
 word can be altered 
independently of the 12 LSBs, and vice versa. The addresses of 
both the LSBs and the MSBs of this register is given in Table 8. 
Table 8. F
START
 Register Bits
D15 
D14 
D13 
D12 
1 
1 
0 
0 
1 
1 
0 
1 
Frequency Increments (
f) 
The value in the Δf register sets the increment frequency for the 
sweep and is added incrementally to the current output frequency. 
Note that the increment frequency can be positive or negative, 
thereby giving an increasing or decreasing frequency sweep.  
D11 to D0 
12 LSBs of F
START
 <11…0> 
12 MSBs of F
START
 <23…12> 
At the start of a sweep, the frequency contained in the F
START
register is output. Next, the frequency (F
START
 + Δf ) is output. 
This is followed by (F
START
 + Δf + Δf) and so on. Multiplying the 
Δf value by the number of increments (N
INCR
), and adding it to 
the start frequency (F
START
), gives the final frequency in the 
sweep. Mathematically this final frequency/stop frequency is 
represented by 
F
START
 + (N
INCR
 × Δf).  
The Δf register is a 23-bit register, and requires two 16-bit 
writes to be programmed. Table 9 gives the addresses associated 
with both the MSB and LSB registers of the Δf word.  
Table 9. f Register Bits 
D15 
0 
D14 
0 
D13 
1 
D12 
0 
D11 
12 LSBs of 
f 
<11…0> 
0 
D10 to D0 
Sweep 
Direction 
N/A 
0 
0 
1 
1 
11 MSBs of 
Δ
f <22…12> 
11 MSBs of 
Δ
f <22…12> 
Positive 
Δ
f 
(F
START
 + 
Δ
f) 
Negative 
f 
(F
START
  
Δ
f) 
0 
0 
1 
1 
1 
Number of Increments (N
INCR
) 
An end frequency, or a maximum/minimum frequency before 
the sweep changes direction is not required on the AD5930. 
Instead, this end frequency is calculated by multiplying the 
frequency increment value (Δf) by the number of frequency 
steps (N
INCR
), and adding it to/subtracting it from the start 
frequency (F
START
), that is, F
START
 + N
INCR
 × Δ f. The N
INCR
 register 
is a 12-bit register, with the address shown in Table 10.  
Table 10. N
INCR
 Register Bits
D15 
D14 
D13 
D12 
0 
0 
0 
1 
D11 to D0 
12 bits of N
INCR 
<11…0> 
The number of increments is programmed in binary fashion, 
with 000000000010 representing the minimum number of 
frequency increments (2 increments), and 111111111111 
representing the maximum number of increments (4095).
Table 11. N
INCR
 Data Bits  
D11 
D0 
Number of Increments 
0000 
0000 
0010 
2 frequency increments. This is the 
minimum number of frequency 
increments. 
0000 
0000 
0011 
3 frequency increments. 
0000 
0000 
0100 
4 frequency increments. 
… 
… 
… 
… 
1111 
1111 
1110 
4094 frequency increments. 
1111 
1111 
1111 
4095 frequency increments. 
Increment Interval (t
INT
) 
The increment interval dictates the duration of the DAC output 
signal for each individual frequency of the frequency sweep. 
The AD5930 offers the user two choices: 
The duration is a multiple of cycles of the output frequency. 
The duration is a multiple of MCLK periods. 
This is selected by Bit D13 in the t
INT
 register as shown in Table 12.  
Table 12. t
INT
 Register Bits
D15 
D14 
D13 
D12 
D11 
0 
1 
0 
x 
x 
D10 to D0 
11 bits <10…0> 
Fixed number of output 
waveform cycles. 
11 bits <10…0> 
Fixed number of clock 
periods. 
0 
1 
1 
x 
x 
Programming of this register is in binary form with the 
minimum number being decimal 2. Note in Table 12 that 11 
bits, Bit D10 to Bit D0, of the register are available to program 
the time interval. As an example, if MCLK = 50 MHz, then each 
clock period/base interval is (1/50 MHz) = 20 ns. If each 
frequency needs to be output for 100 ns, then <00000000101> 
or decimal 5 needs to be programmed to this register. Note that 
the AD5930 can output each frequency for a maximum 
duration of 211 1 (or 2047) times the increment interval.