A study on the low-cost digital spectrum analyzer design

In a communication system having a limited bandwidth, it is very important to analyze the spectrum. The spectral analysis is performed by measuring the power of signal within a specific frequency band. A commercial spectrum analyzer is usually employed for instrument equipment and cannot be utilized for a communication auxiliary device because of its high cost. In this study, the low-cost digital spectrum analyzer is proposed and is implemented into FPGA chipsets, in which multiple filter banks are realized into a single FIR (Finite Impulse response) filter structure in order to reduce the size of the hardware. In order to decrease the complexity of the filter, it reduces sampling frequency by using the DDC (Digital Down Convertor). The proposed system is very useful for communication systems to increase the bandwidth efficiency with a low-cost and the high performance.