High speed arbitrary waveform generator

1. An apparatus for generating signals comprising;

a digital signal processing element for processing a signal, the digital signal processing element comprising:

a low-pass filter for extracting a low frequency portion of a waveform;

a high-pass filter for extracting a high frequency portion of the waveform; and

a mixing element for mixing a local oscillator with the high frequency portion of the waveform to generate a lower frequency version of the high frequency portion of the waveform;

a plurality of digital-to-analog converters, each having a bandwidth and each producing a D/A output signal;

at least one upconverter, the at least one upconverter receiving a D/A output signal and producing an upconverted signal; and

a combining element that receives and combines at least one D/A output signal and at least one upconverted signal and produces a final output signal;

whereby the final output signal includes spectral content occupying a substantially contiguous frequency band whose width is greater than the bandwidth of any one of the plurality of digital-to-analog converters.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the digital signal processing element further comprises a second low-pass filter for extracting the lower frequency version of the high frequency portion of the waveform.

3. A method for generating a signal, comprising the steps of:

digital-to-analog converting a low frequency portion of a desired waveform to generate a lower frequency analog signal;

digital-to-analog converting a lower frequency version of a higher frequency portion of the desired waveform to generate an analog lower frequency version of the higher frequency portion of the desired waveform;

mixing the analog lower frequency version of the higher frequency portion of the desired waveform with a signal from a local oscillator to generate a higher frequency version thereof; and

combining the low frequency analog signal and the analog higher frequency version of the higher frequency portion of the desired waveform to generate a combined analog waveform.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising the step of outputting the combined analog waveform including spectral content substantially identical to the spectral content of the desired waveform.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the spectral content of the output combined analog waveform covers a frequency range that is greater than the bandwidth of the low frequency portion of the desired waveform.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the spectral content of the output combined analog waveform covers a frequency range that is greater than the bandwidth of the higher frequency portion of the desired waveform.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the combined analog waveform is a substantially accurate analog representation of the desired waveform.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the combined analog waveform spans a frequency range substantially similar to that of the desired waveform.

9. The method of claim 3 , wherein the desired waveform is provided as a digital representation.

10. The method of claim 3 , wherein the combined analog waveform includes spectral content occupying a substantially contiguous frequency band whose width is greater than the bandwidth of either the low or higher frequency portion of the desired waveform.

11. The method of claim 3 , wherein the desired waveform is low-pass filtered to extract the low frequency portion thereof;

wherein the desired waveform is band-pass filtered to extract the higher frequency portion thereof; and

wherein the extracted higher frequency portion of the desired waveform is mixed with a signal from a local oscillator to generate the lower frequency version thereof.

12. An apparatus for generating signals comprising;

a digital signal processing element for processing a signal, the digital signal processing element comprising:

a plurality of band-pass filters for extracting a plurality of frequency portions of a waveform; and

a mixing element for mixing a local oscillator with one or more of the extracted portions of the waveform to generate a lower frequency version of each of the one or more of the extracted portions of the waveform;

a plurality of digital-to-analog converters, each having a bandwidth and each producing a D/A output signal;

at least two upconverters, each upconverter receiving a D/A output signal from one of the plurality of digital-to-analog converters and producing an upconverted signal; and

a combining element that receives and combines the at least two upconverted signals and produces a final output signal;

whereby the final output signal includes spectral content occupying a substantially contiguous frequency band whose width is greater than the bandwidth of any one of the plurality of digital-to-analog converters.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the digital signal processing element further comprises a plurality of low-pass filters for separating the lower frequency versions of the extracted portions of the waveform from the one or more of the extracted portions of the waveform.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the digital signal processing element further comprises a plurality of summing elements for summing each of the lower frequency versions of the extracted portions of the waveform with a reference tone phase synchronized with the local oscillator to fix the phase relationship between the one or more extracted portions of the waveform.