Four-channel radio-frequency signal generator programmed by an open-source Arduino-based control system via single or quad Serial Peripheral Interface

TL;DR

This paper introduces an open-source, Arduino-based RF signal generator capable of high-speed, programmable control over multiple channels, suitable for precise applications in physics, manufacturing, and microscopy.

Contribution

It presents a low-cost, flexible control system that can reliably program RF devices at near 1 MHz speeds using a simple interface, expanding accessibility for complex RF applications.

Findings

Achieved ~1 MHz programming rate with Teensy 4.1 board.

Demonstrated a four-channel RF generator based on an Analog Devices evaluation board.

Validated the system's performance for precise RF control in various applications.

Abstract

Radio-frequency (RF) signal generators are standard laboratory equipment and a wide-range of open-source and commercial devices exists to address their many applications. Nonetheless, only few expensive and proprietary solutions can be re-configured within a wide frequency band and triggered on a micro-second timescale. Such specifications are required for applications that use variable radio-frequencies to generate programmed mixed signals, to control processes or states and to precisely steer laser beams using acousto-optical devices, tasks often needed in industrial manufacturing, atomic and molecular physics or microscopy. Here we present an open-source low-cost Arduino-based control system that can store up to millions of commands received from a computer and then perform reliable high-speed programming of an arbitrary device under its control (DUC) via a single- or quad-wire Serial Peripheral Interface. The software architecture operates as a real-time state machine, making it easily extensible and adaptable to any DUC. Each configuration change can be triggered either externally or internally, reaching ~1 MHz rates when using a Teensy 4.1 Arduino-compatible board. Leveraging this flexible system, we developed a programmable four-channel RF signal generator, based on an Analog Devices 9959 Evaluation board, and we demonstrated its capability and validated its performance.