Yuanbo Du, Wenbing Li, Yapeng Ge, Hui Li, Ke Deng, and Zehuang Lu
MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurement, Hubei Key Laboratory of Gravitation
and Quantum Physics, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road,
Wuhan 430074, People’s Republic of China
(Received 9 May 2017; accepted 24 August 2017; published online 1 September 2017)

A high-frequency signal generator based on direct digital synthesizer (DDS) and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is presented. The FPGA provides the controlling time sequence for the DDS, which has a highest output frequency of 1.4 GHz and a frequency resolution of 190 pHz. At an output frequency of 1.2 GHz, the measured phase noise, including the contribution of the reference clock, is 65 dBc/Hz@1 Hz, while the intrinsic phase noise is 82 dBc/Hz@1 Hz. Time delay of the DDS is measured to be less than 150 ns. The signal generator is used to drive an acousto-optic modulator, and the rise time due to the whole link is 24 ns. The developed signal generator can be used in many precision measurement experiments in the fields of atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5001489