Arbitrary Waveform Generators for synthetic instrumentation

In this work, a real field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation of a novel arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) is presented. The new approach uses a fixed digital-to-analog converter (DAC) sample clock in combination with an arbitrary factor interpolator. Waveforms created at any sample rate are interpolated to the fixed DAC sample rate in real-time. As a result, the additional lower performance analog hardware required in current approaches, namely, multiple reconstruction filters and/or additional sample clocks, is avoided. Because the system is simple enough to be implemented on an FPGA, flexibility is maximized. Measured results are given confirming the performance of the system predicted by the theoretical design and simulation.