WCDMA test applications using an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) are described in this paper. A test signal generation method for the receiver section of a WCDMA handset is described with a center frequency of 161.28 MHz containing a 5 MHz spread spectrum signal. The arbitrary waveform consumes 2.6 M AWG memory locations running at 3.9 Gs/s. The 1.5 kHz primitive frequency is sufficient for generating WCDMA test chips described by the 3/sup rd/ generation partnership project (3GPP) by using modulation techniques. Other data processing for creation of the test signal include the application of a channelization code to provide orthogonal data, a scrambling code, and a root Nyquist filter for reducing the frequency content around the 161.28 MHz center. An enhancement for bit error rate tests using controllable Gaussian noise for testing receiver tolerance and acceleration of bit error rate measurements is also discussed.