High-resolution waveform synthesis based on phase-amplitude mapping

With rapid updating of semiconductor technology and continuous development of large-scale integrated circuits, the device under test has higher and higher requirements for the resolution, accuracy, and waveform modulation of the stimulation signal source. The traditional method of creating digital waveforms involves employing direct digital synthesis technology. However, the sampling rate and memory depth easily limit the adjustment range and resolution of its waveform timing parameters, and it is not easy to adjust the internal parameters of the waveform. Therefore, it is essential for modern electronic technology to further improve the programmability of synthesized waveforms under the condition of a limited sampling rate and memory. This paper presents a real-time waveform synthesis method using phase-amplitude mapping. The proposed method allows for arbitrary waveform generation without memory constraints and improved timing resolution. The sampling rate no longer limits the resolution of the device. It offers amplitude, frequency, phase, and pulse-width modulation for the test device. In addition, a low-cost, no-memory, full-phase, parallel waveform synthesizer is realized on the hardware platform of “FPGA+DAC”. Finally, in this paper, the resolution of the synthesized waveforms based on a Xilinx FPGA and a DAC is improved by a factor of 4 compared to the sampling time.