SWRU546E October 2018 – May 2022 AWR6843 , AWR6843AOP , IWR6443 , IWR6843 , IWR6843AOP
A power vs frequency plot of the raw ADC data captured with DCA100EVM shows a spur near 4MHz that is 12dB above the ADC noise floor. This spur degrades the available spur- free dynamic range (SFDR) of the frontend receiver.
The spur is as a result of the switching of the power module device (LP87524) at 4MHz which couples via the power supplies of the IWR6843AOP device.
The power module device (LP87524) has a feature to enable spread spectrum which can be leveraged to reduce the level of the spur. More on spread spectrum can be found in section 7.3.1.4 of the LP87524 data sheet. Enabling spread spectrum mode is recommended and it has the effect of reducing the spur level by 10dB, lowering the noise spectral density and shfting the spur frequency from 4MHz to 3.89MHz.
Spread spectrum mode can be enabled by writing the following to the I2C interface of the power module:
Write 0x01 to register address 0x2B, I2C address = 0x60
Write 0xD6 to register address 0x2C, I2C address = 0x60
For help enabling the spread spectrum mode, contact TI support through E2E.