Electronic Design: How Arduino and Raspberry Pi Enable High-Speed RF Measurements with FPGA Instrumentation

Traditional high-speed RF measurement setups often require a choice between complex, custom FPGA design or bulky benchtop instruments. In a technical feature for Electronic Design, I examined how a hybrid approach—combining popular platforms like Arduino, Arduino Opta, and Raspberry Pi with software-defined FPGA instrumentation—bridges this gap.

By offloading high-speed signal acquisition and processing to FPGA-based instruments, engineers can build sophisticated embedded systems without the complexity of FPGA development. Controlled through standard interfaces like SCPI and UART, this hybrid architecture enables faster prototyping, scalable testing, and research-grade measurement capabilities across real-world applications including predictive maintenance, industrial automation, and radar research.

Read the full article on Electronic Design.