Single chip FPGA based realization of arbitrary waveform generator using rademacher and walsh functions

Arbitrary waveform generators (AWGs) are becoming increasingly important for test and measurement applications. This paper describes a new approach for generating arbitrary waveforms using FPGA and a set of Rademacher and Walsh functions. Utilizing these orthogonal functions, any periodic waveform can be realized. Recent advancements in field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology have made waveform generation very easy and cost-effective. For demonstration purpose we used a custom defined arbitrary waveform that is a concatenation of trapezoidal, sinusoidal and triangular waveforms. Simulation results for the proposed AWG are presented. Topdown approach has been adopted to realize the waveform genera in Spartan-3 FPGA. Th e maximum clock frequency for this design is 24.944 MHz with a power consumption of 62 mW