The Design of A Software Defined Arbitrary Waveform Generator

Comprehensive waveform generation is an important functional component of automated test equipment (ATE). Waveform generators synthesize signal stimuli to be applied to a device under test (DUT). As military and commercial electronics become increasingly complex, more sophisticated signal stimuli are required. ATE requires signal stimuli varying from advanced communication signals to the playback of captured real-world analog signals. Waveform generators can synthesize signals that can be broadly categorized into four types: standard functions, advanced functions, arbitrary waveforms, and waveform sequences. Standard functions include the simple sine, square, triangle, pulse, and ramp waveforms. Advanced functions include complex signals such as multi-tone, AM, FM, sinc pulse, haversine, half-cycle sine, Gaussian pulse, Lorentz pulse, noise and others. Arbitrary waveforms involve the point-by-point user-defined waveform synthesis. Waveform sequences provide a mechanism to piece together standard or arbitrary waveforms in stages to create a user-defined compound waveform. Example applications for each of these four waveform categories are described in this paper. Modern waveform generators are extremely powerful, but can also add significant complexity for the user. The arbitrary waveform generator, an instrument found in most ATE systems, is a very powerful signal synthesis tool. Unfortunately, many users take advantage of only a small fraction of the powerful features available to them in an arbitrary waveform generator. Also, selecting the right arbitrary waveform generator can be daunting when comparing specifications such as DAC resolution, clock rates and topology, memory depth, sequencing, sweeping, triggering and synchronization. This paper describes the technical differences between various signal generation techniques, presents the signal fidelity impact of clock topology, discusses dynamic range limitations due to noise, accuracy and resolution, and provides typical applications to illustrate signal generation usage. Ultimately, this information should help the user avoid common pitfalls in applying waveform generators within ATE.

The paper design a good performance arbitrary waveform generator with AD’s digital-analog chip AD760 as the core. Thesis mainly research hardware and software design of computer-controlled arbitrary waveform generator for the corresponding. Hardware part of the arbitrary waveform generator take Cygnal’s high-speed micro-controller C8051F310 micro-controller as the controller and AD760 circuit components of the design. We carried out anti-jamming design when hardware design, Including filtering, spare part handling of input pin, grounded, the power handling. The paper also describes a total distortion of periodic arbitrary waveform definition and evaluation process and methods, the energy is calculated using the time domain distortion, and the influence of the measurement system itself is compensated. This method can be used for arbitrary waveform generator arbitrary waveform distortion for accurate measurement and measurement calibration.

Focus on test and measurement

This paper describes how using a phase switching technique can produce a low distortion signal from an Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG), and how this technique aligns the performance of the AWGs between testers, to evaluate the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) performance of Analogue-to-Digital Converters (ADCs). Once a device has been characterized and correlated to the bench, the test engineer needs to start the release procedure in getting the device into a production ready state. One major issue that a test engineer faces is the difference in ADC THD performance test results using the same Automated Test Equipment (ATE) manufacture testers (AWGs). This paper will then show how the Gauge Repeatability and Reproducibility (GRR) between testers can be produced more easily allowing less stringent guard-bands to guarantee the performance of those devices that have performance criteria close to the device specification. This work will also go some way to proving previous papers' works on distortion shaping testing to enhance the spectral performance of Arbitrary Waveform Generators.

FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) are highly integrated devices which can be programmed as variable functions. The application-level testing of FPGAs usually include multiple reconfigurations and relevant functional tests respectively through ATEs (Automated Test Equipments). However, test engineers are facing a tough problem to reconfigure FPGAs automatically through an ATE instead of using specific tools and download cables provided by FPGAs manufacturers. This paper takes example for XILINX Virtex-E series, presents two different methods for FPGA auto configuration based on an ATE using JTAG configuration interface and boundary-scan protocol, and accomplishes the entire auto configuration-test procedure by a single ATE.

Based on the detailed analysis of the Virtual instrument technology and Arbitrary Waveform Generator technology, Arbitrary Waveform Generator module based on VXI bus is discussed. The design principle and realization method of Arbitrary Waveform Generator based on VXI bus are given, which involved in VXI bus register based interface and Direct Digital Synthesis, furthermore, Arbitrary Waveform Generator module based on VXI bus is developed successfully. The experiment shows that the developed Arbitrary Waveform Generator based on VXI bus can generate the normal waveform and the arbitrary waveform, and can implement the adjustment of frequency, amplitude and phase.

We are developing an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) to provide enhanced capability for radar applications. The current design accommodates two waveform generators on a single unit for dual frequency operation. The basic architecture of this unit employs a field programmable gate array (FPGA) and a high speed and high precision digital to analog converter (DAC) for direct digital synthesis. This AWG is capable of up to 450 MHz bandwidth with ability for frequency notching. Phase fidelity of better than 1.2/spl deg/ deviation RMS is also achievable. This AWG operates with lower power consumption as compared with other waveform generators, which is advantageous for future spaceborne applications. This will enable radars to return higher precision data, to be reduced in complexity, and to operate in any band without interfering with dedicated bandwidths.

A low-power technique for a static random-access memory (SRAM)-based on-chip arbitrary-waveform generator (AWG) is proposed for two types of analog-signal-processing applications: multiresolution spectrum sensing and matched filter. The SRAM has an embedded address generator to limit the operation in a sequential-access mode of the AWG. Then, the power consumption of the AWG is analyzed according to the operation modes in multiresolution and multiwaveform spectrum-sensing functions. The low-power technique reduces power by 18% of the SRAM and the address generator and by about 2.2% of the entire AWG at a 1.8-V supply voltage. The AWG is fabricated in a 0.18-μm CMOS technology and demonstrates a chirp signal and a Daubechies wavelet with a 45-dBc spurious-free dynamic range and a cross-correlation factor of 0.96-0.988 with ideal signals.

Testing of a read channel for hard disk drives (HDD) requires an extremely high-speed arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) to emulate Lorentzian waveforms for read functional tests. If a sampling rate required to the AWG exceeds the maximum available rate of the instrument, a possible solution is to use two AWG's together running at the same rate synchronously and generating signal alternately to make their equivalent sampling rate doubled. One of the key components of such interleaving AWG is a high-speed analog selector. However it is not easy to find a good selector in ultra high frequency range. An application note proposes a practical solution that is a pseudo interleaving AWG. It is a variation of traditional signal combining method using a power combiner instead of a high-speed selector. This paper describes about performance analysis and experimental results of the pseudo interleaving compared to a true interleaving. Data stored in two AWG's are created with the same method as the true interleaving AWG. The data are simply distributed alternately into each AWG. The results show that the pseudo interleaving works well in spite of its simple structure and can be useful for generating Lorentzian waveforms

The arbitrary waveform generator plays a very important role in the design and testing of electronic products, and the virtual instrument provides a new direction for the development of arbitrary waveform generator. The traditional waveform generator is improved by LabVIEW in the paper, and the virtual arbitrary waveform generator is designed by the graphical programming.The system can generate the common basic function signals, generate arbitrary waveform signal through superposition of signal and addition of noise signal, and realize the signal storage and transmission. It can easily realize the continuous upgrading and improvement of the system function and output of the customized signal waveform, and provide convenience for design and measurement.

In this paper, we verified an arbitrary waveform generator based on a nonlinear transmission line (NLTL). The fabricated arbitrary waveform generator consists of a NLTL harmonic generator, 10dB coupled line couplers, Wilkinson power dividers, band pass filters, low noise amplifiers (LNA), variable attenuators, and NLTL phase shifters. By controlling the bias voltage of attenuators and phase shifters, it is possible to generate a desired arbitrary waveform such as a triangle waveform and a sawtooth waveform in a microwave frequency range.

In response to the urgent demand for the development of future radar application platforms from single radar functionality toward integrated multifunctional systems, we show an advanced microwave photonic waveform editing method that enables the editing of arbitrary radar waveforms, equipping them with the capability to perform spectrum sensing. This, in turn, expands single-function radar systems into joint radar and spectrum-sensing systems. We theoretically define and calculate the accumulation function of an arbitrary waveform after passing through a specific dispersive medium and utilize this accumulation function to further design a corresponding binary sequence for editing the waveform. After editing, the accumulation function of the edited waveform approximates that of a linearly frequency-modulated (LFM) signal matching the specific dispersive medium. Thus, the edited waveform can be compressed into a narrow pulse after passing through the dispersive medium, realizing the frequency-to-time mapping (FTTM) for achieving frequency measurement or time–frequency analysis. The concept is verified through both simulation and experiment. Using a dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF) with a total dispersion of −6817 ps/nm, arbitrary waveforms, including a 7-bit Barker phase-coded waveform, an LFM waveform, a nonlinearly frequency-modulated (NLFM) waveform, and a waveform with an “E” time–frequency diagram, are edited and further used for microwave frequency measurement and time–frequency analysis in an ultra-wide bandwidth of 36.8 GHz. The temporal resolution and frequency resolution are 2 ns and 0.86 GHz, respectively.

Electronic systems for qubit control and measurement serve as a bridge between quantum programming language and quantum information processors. With the rapid development of superconducting quantum circuit technology, synchronization in a large-scale system, low-latency execution, and low noise are required for electronic systems. Here, we present a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based electronic system with a distributed synchronous clock and trigger architecture. The system supports synchronous control of qubits with jitters of ∼5ps. We implement a real-time digital signal processing system in the FPGA, enabling precise timing control, arbitrary waveform generation, in-phase and quadrature demodulation for qubit state discrimination, and the generation of real-time qubit-state-dependent trigger signals for feedback/feedforward control. The hardware and firmware low-latency design reduces the feedback/feedforward latency of the electronic system to 125ns, significantly less than the decoherence times of the qubit. Finally, we demonstrate the functionalities and low-noise performance of this system using a fluxonium quantum processor.

Benefitting from a large bandwidth and compact configuration, a time-domain pulse-shaping (TPS) system provides possibilities for generating broadband radio frequency (RF) arbitrary waveforms based on the Fourier transform relationship between the input–output waveform pair. However, limited by the relatively low sampling rate and bit resolution of an electronic arbitrary-waveform generator (EAWG), the diversity and fidelity of the output waveform as well as its reconfiguration rate are constrained. To remove the EAWG’s limitation and realize dynamic real-time reconfiguration of RF waveforms, we propose and demonstrate a novel approach of RF arbitrary-waveform generation based on an improved TPS system with an integrated dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) and multi-tone inputs. By appropriately adjusting the DC bias voltages of DPMZM and the power values, as well as the center frequencies of the multi-tone inputs, any desired RF arbitrary waveform can be generated and reconfigured in real time. Proof-of-concept experiments on the generation of different user-defined waveforms with a sampling rate up to 27 GSa/s have been successfully carried out. Furthermore, the impact of modulation modes and higher-order dispersion on waveform fidelity is also discussed in detail.

A high-performance framework for a network programmable packet processor using P4 and FPGA