Optimized FPGA implementation of Multi-Rate FIR filters through Thread Decomposition

Multirate (decimation/interpolation) filters are among the essential signal processing components in space-borne instruments where Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters are often used to minimize nonlinear group delay and finite-precision effects. Cascaded (multi-stage) designs of Multi-Rate FIR (MRFIR) filters are further used for large rate change ratio, in order to lower the required throughput while simultaneously achieving comparable or better performance than single-stage designs. Traditional representation and implementation of MRFIR employ polyphase decomposition of the original filter structure, whose main purpose is to compute only the needed output at the lowest possible sampling rate. In this paper, an alternative representation and implementation technique, called TD-MRFIR (Thread Decomposition MRFIR), is presented. The basic idea is to decompose MRFIR into output computational threads, in contrast to a structural decomposition of the original filter as done in the polyphase decomposition. Each thread represents an instance of the finite convolution required to produce a single output of the MRFIR. The filter is thus viewed as a finite collection of concurrent threads. The technical details of TD-MRFIR will be explained, first showing its applicability to the implementation of downsampling, upsampling, and resampling FIR filters, and then describing a general strategy to optimally allocate the number of filter taps. A particular FPGA design of multi-stage TD-MRFIR for the L-band radar of NASA's SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) instrument is demonstrated; and its implementation results in several targeted FPGA devices are summarized in terms of the functional (bit width, fixed-point error) and performance (time closure, resource usage, and power estimation) parameters.