2017 12_Report
Urukul has seen extensive testing including large parts of the functionality and performance. The behavior of the RF chains (including RF switches, RF attenuators and output power) meet or exceed specifications. The phase noise performance is excellent and mostly as expected except for a ~kHz phase noise spur (at -75 dBc) that is being investigated. Work and integration of the ARTIQ drivers continues.
The Kasli prototypes are back and are being tested. Apart from minor issues (FTDI level translators, weak pull up, one transceiver not yet working correctly) there are no road blocks.
During testing and integration of Urukul we identified glitches on the SPI clock line at the start and end of the SPI transfer. We traced them back to improper output logic and lack of registers. The issue has been resolved and the fix will be released with ARTIQ 3.2.
We have developed a Python/ARTIQ driver layer for the New Focus 8742 piezo motor controller.