Implementation of a Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer on FPGA Platforms

Spectral analysis plays an essential role in different applications. General-purpose spectrum analyzers are too expensive and are not appropriate for real-time applications. Therefore, a low-cost instrument for spectral analysis is needed. This paper describes a real-time field-programmable gate arrays implementation of a spectrum analyzer based on a modified periodogram of the input signal. It is able to detect and estimate the power and frequency of up to N_s narrow-band signals given an analysis bandwidth, instantaneous dynamic range and frequency resolution.