Bandwidth-intensive FPGA architecture for multi-dimensional DFT

Multi-dimensional (MD) Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is a key kernel algorithm in many signal processing algorithms, including radar data processing and medical imaging. Although there are many efficient software solutions, they are not suitable for applications that require fast response time. In this paper we focus on FPGA-based implementation of MDDFT. The proposed architecture is based on a decomposition algorithm that takes into account FPGA resources and the characteristics of off-chip memory access, namely, the burst access pattern of the Synchronous Dynamic RAM (SDRAM). The architecture can support 2D, 3D, and even higher dimensional DFT with high performance. It has been implemented on a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA platform and its performance for 2D and 3D DFT measured and analyzed.