Abstract: 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) technologies 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. Top- down approach has been adopted to realize the waveform generator in Spartan-3 FPGA. The maximum clock frequency for this design is 24.944
MHz with a power consumption of 62 mW.