Scaleable multichannel square-wave sequence generator based on the
RP2040 microcontroller
Abstract
Multichannel signal generators are used in many fields of science. For
example, they are used to provide signals for ultrasonic phased arrays
and usually depend on costly FPGAs or DSPs. We present a design based on
the synchronization of multiple low-cost RP2040 microcontrollers to
generate digital square wave signals (PWM) and a granularity of 4 ns. It
can be scaled up for high output counts. The CPU clocks are
synchronized, and PIO modules are used to generate synchronized
interrupts across the system. This ensures a stable phase relation of
all output signals with a remaining jitter of 0.17 ns. We demonstrate
the generation of chirp signals by utilizing the DMA for hardware-level
data transfer. This signal generator can utilized to control ultrasonic
phased arrays and generate arbitrary test patterns for digital circuits.