Investigation of techniques for high speed CMOS arbitrary waveform generation

Today a growing number of applications in design engineering, production and environmental testing, and system service require specific analog waveforms and digital patterns. Such requirements are neither satisfactorily nor easily met by the use of standard function or single purpose, custom generators. Traditional methods of waveform generation suffer from undesirable complexity or mediocre performance and are otherwise limited. For the majority of arbitrary waveform generation applications, including medical engineering, modal analysis and electronic engineering, direct digital synthesis techniques are satisfactory. Direct digital synthesis, based generally on periodic retrieval of predetermined amplitude values, may be used to 2 generate such waveforms. Within the limits imposed by the system\u27s maximum sample rate and the Nyquist criteria, any waveform may be produced using these techniques. The objective of this inquiry, within a particular set of constraints, is to extend the cost/performance envelope of direct digital synthesis techniques for the generation of arbitrary waveforms. Performance is enhanced, particularly in the areas of output bandwidth and signal purity