sSDR Achieves X-Band Operation up to 11 GHz for Advanced RF Applications

Wavelet Lab has reached an important milestone in sSDR development: X-band operation up to 11 GHz.

sSDR is a compact M.2 software-defined radio platform designed for users who need wide frequency coverage, embedded integration, and high-performance digital processing in a small form factor. The platform extends Wavelet Lab's SDR family into applications that require higher RF coverage, faster host interfaces, and more FPGA resources.

This development milestone moves sSDR closer to production readiness and confirms the platform direction for advanced RF research, radar experimentation, remote sensing, instrumentation, and signal intelligence  applications.

Extending SDR coverage into X-band

Early sSDR revisions demonstrated solid RF performance at lower microwave frequencies. Wavelet Lab continued development to extend the operating range into X-band, which required changes to the RF matching network and component selection.

X-band operation is important because it supports applications where higher-frequency operation provides better resolution, smaller antennas, and useful propagation characteristics for radar, sensing, instrumentation, and advanced communications.

For engineers and researchers, an M.2 SDR platform with coverage up to 11 GHz creates a compact path into applications that often require larger, more expensive, or less flexible RF hardware.

RF front-end improvements

To support higher-frequency operation, the sSDR design was refined with improved RF matching and components selected for operation above 11 GHz.

The development path included evaluation of LMS8001 variants, connector upgrades, improved clock distribution, and RF matching changes.

Key RF-focused improvements include:

• redesigned RF matching network for operation above 11 GHz
• upgraded high-frequency connectors
• improved clock-distribution circuitry
• continued testing of receive and transmit performance across wide frequency ranges

These changes are central to making sSDR useful not only as a wideband SDR, but as a practical embedded RF platform for real applications.

UltraScale+ FPGA and PCIe Gen3 x4

sSDR also moves to a more capable FPGA and host-interface architecture.

The design uses an AMD Artix UltraScale+ XCAU7P FPGA, providing significantly more logic resources than smaller 7-series FPGA options. This extra capacity supports more advanced FPGA-side processing, higher-throughput data movement, and future acceleration workflows.

The move to M.2 Key M and PCIe Gen3 x4 gives sSDR a high-bandwidth host interface suitable for demanding SDR workloads, including high-rate streaming, FPGA processing, GPU integration, and future 10GbE or fiber-oriented system concepts.

Why this matters

Many SDR users eventually hit the same bottlenecks: limited RF coverage, limited host bandwidth, limited FPGA resources, or limited integration options.

sSDR is designed to address these constraints in a compact embedded form factor.

Instead of treating the SDR as a large external instrument, sSDR brings wideband RF capability into a module that can be integrated into embedded systems, edge computers, carrier boards, and custom platforms.

This is valuable for:

• X-band RF experimentation
• radar research
• ​spectrum monitoring
• [signal intelligence ]()
• remote sensing
• instrumentation
• private wireless research
• embedded RF systems
• FPGA-accelerated DSP

A higher-performance path in the Wavelet Lab ecosystem

sSDR complements uSDR and xSDR by extending the product family into higher-frequency and higher-bandwidth applications.

uSDR is optimized for compact, accessible, browser-connected SDR workflows.

xSDR adds 2×2 MIMO and higher-performance embedded operation up to 3.8 GHz.

sSDR pushes the family into 11 GHz operation, PCIe Gen3 x4, and UltraScale+ FPGA resources.

Together, these platforms allow developers to choose the right SDR for their performance, frequency, channel-count, and integration needs.