Implementation of Transient Signal Detection Algorithms on FPGA

Radio transient signals are non-periodic and discrete obtained from high energy physical processes in space. Most challenging issues in transient signal detection are the speed and accuracy with which a signal can be detected. Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) algorithm has been employed in this paper for transient signal detection and proved to be capable of meeting the necessary requirements. However, as ordinary software-based programs are unable to handle large scale sample of signals, the current research focuses on implementing the CUSUM algorithm on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) which is a specific integrated circuit within the field of semi-customized circuits that can greatly enhance the speed of detection and analysis. Therefore a FPGA-based system was devoted to implement the algorithms for an efficient transient signal detection. A detection speed of 64 ns per sample set was achieved via implementation the algorithm on an Altera Cyclone IV device with a clock speed of 50 MHZ. The analyzed result shows the power consumption of the FPGA based system can be reduced to 136. 75 mW.