How to Generate, Capture, and Verify Arbitrary Waveforms

+ Advanced Benchtop Waveform and Function Generators

Generate and Verify Complex Waveforms

Engineers often need to reproduce complex, transient, or event-driven electrical signals and confirm that the resulting waveform matches the intended behavior. The test becomes more challenging when the signal contains pulses, bursts, transitions, or custom shapes that cannot be represented adequately by standard periodic waveforms. Arbitrary waveform generation provides a repeatable stimulus, while waveform capture records the resulting voltage over time for analysis. Accurate testing requires control over waveform shape, amplitude, timing, measurement range, sampling rate, acquisition duration, and trigger conditions. These settings determine whether the event of interest is captured with enough timing and amplitude information to support meaningful waveform verification.

The measurement workflow begins by defining the required arbitrary waveform and establishing the acquisition conditions needed to observe the event. The acquisition is armed before the signal event occurs, and a defined voltage threshold initiates triggered acquisition when the waveform reaches the specified level. The captured record can then be examined in the time domain to evaluate waveform shape, amplitude, timing, transitions, and other transient behavior. Engineers can repeat the test with different waveform definitions, trigger levels, sampling rates, or acquisition windows to evaluate changing operating conditions. This approach supports repeatable waveform capture and verification for custom electrical signals without requiring the engineer to continuously monitor the event or manually determine when acquisition should begin.

Arbitrary Waveform Generation and Capture Solution

Perform the test by creating a repeatable custom stimulus and configuring a triggered digitizing measurement to capture the resulting waveform event. Advanced Benchtop Waveform and Function Generators provide the arbitrary waveform generation needed to reproduce pulses, bursts, transitions, and other application-specific signal shapes. Advanced Benchtop Digital Multimeters add digitizing and level-trigger capabilities for waveform capture without changing the bench workflow. Engineers can configure voltage range, sampling rate, acquisition duration, and trigger level so the DMM digitizer begins triggered acquisition when the defined event occurs. The captured record can then be displayed and analyzed in the time domain for waveform verification of signal shape, amplitude, timing, and transient behavior. Together, these instrument classes provide a coordinated stimulus-and-measurement solution that can be reconfigured for different waveform events while preserving a consistent setup for generation, capture, and verification.

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