Evaluation kit aids project entry for safe backbone and ADAS sensor links

KDPOF offers the new extensive evaluation kit EVK9351AUT for a quick and simple project launch of optical gigabit connectivity in vehicles.

“Our new EVK9351AUT equips carmakers, suppliers, and test houses to fully evaluate the KDPOF automotive transceivers KD9351 and KD1053 for automotive, optical 1000BASE-RHC PHY implementation,” explained Carlos Pardo, CEO and co-founder of KDPOF. “We thus support our recently announced new integrated KD9351 Fiber Optic Transceiver (FOT) for comprehensive evaluation.”

The platform offers all the functional and performance evaluation capabilities demanded by automotive OEMs, Tier 1s, and test houses. It, therefore, aids product designers to successfully evaluate the company's technology and shorten the time-to-market. The new KD9351, together with the continuing KD1053 IC, cuts the cost for 1Gb/s optical connectivity by 30%, offering competitive pricing for EMC critical or galvanic isolated critical links. Applications include safe Ethernet backbones and sensor links for ADAS.

The evaluation kit comprises two EVB9351AUT evaluation boards, two evaluation board metal enclosures (optional), two 1000BASE-T SFP modules, two 100BASE-TX SFP modules (optional), one USB2ALL monitoring box, one optical harness, two Cat. 5e UTP cables, two direct-attach passive SFP twinax cables (optional), as well as user and design documentation.

The boards can operate at 100 and 1,000Mb/s. A single version of a board is compatible with multiple headers and harnesses from various manufacturers. The user can plug a standard SFP module into the cage and have media converter functionality supporting Wake-Up and Sleep. Complementary items can be offered, such as optical harness, loopback SFP, or SFP direct-attach passive twinax cable. The board is configured in an EEPROM memory. The provided SDK allows the generation of binaries for different configuration options and flashing of the EEPROM. In addition, control and status of the KD1053 transceiver is accessed through the GUI (included in the SDK), which can be run on a computer connected by a USB2All module. The GUI includes several panels that give complete access to the transceiver, giving information on the link status and its parameters. User and design documentation is included to simplify the evaluation and develop automotive end products based on the two-part numbers.