Communications: Spectrometer IP Core For FPGAs Handles 1-GHz Sampled Signals

May 26, 2005

Based on the company's HyperSpeed fast Fourier transform (FFT) technology, a block of intellectual property that implements a spectrometer makes possible advances in radio astronomical receivers that operate in the frequency domain. Able to operate with sampled 1-GHz signals at its input, the core converts the signal to a frequency power spectrum using a digital band filter and a 16-kpoint FFT in continuous real time. This enables a 400-MHz bandwidth of radio spectrum with a passband ripple of only 0.001 dB to be analyzed with a frequency resolution of 30.5 kHz. The combination of very wide bandwidth and fine resolution can be implemented in a single FPGA such as a Xilinx Virtex II Pro, making it quick to implement and cost-effective versus traditional approaches. Contact the company for licensing arrangements.

RF Engineswww.rfel.com

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.