GHz PLL/VCO LMX2594/5 Any Hands-on Experience?

[Mr Simpleton]

The TI LMX2594 or 2595 looks very very sweet... Having a single IC capable of generating signals from 10 MHz to 15 or 19 GHz is pretty mind boggling! Curious if anyone here have had a chance to play with this and how hard it is to get all 100+ registers properly set. Know there is software to help, but there are so many holes to trip into. Thinking of getting the EVM, priced at ~$400 it looks like a great deal as a low noise reference is included.

Information in the data sheet is very limited vs. what you see in similar products from Analog. No typical spur plots, nor switch time graphs, makes me a bit worried.... Analog is still showing its 15 GHz PLL/VCO as advanced info, and not currently available.

[hendorog]

No experience yet, but I'm just starting on a board. I'm going to use the LMX2572 as a cheaper option for the first one - pretty sure it is pin compatible with the LMX2594/95.

[Mr Simpleton]

Cool! Looking forward to read about your findings....

[Lukas]

I'm just in the process of getting a board that uses the LMX2595 (originally LMX2594, but that one happened to be out of stock)  for LO generation. Like a miracle, it locked pretty much on first try using the default configuration that came with the TI software. In the next few weeks, I should get around to measure some more specific performance figures.

[Mr Simpleton]

Oh the 2595... 19 GHz, that is spectacular.
If you can make some spectral plots showing spurs and such, would be greatly appreciated!