Analysis of fixed point FFT for fourier domain optical coherence tomography systems

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new imaging modality gaining popularity in the medical community. Its application includes ophthalmology, gastroenterology, dermatology etc. As the use of OCT increases, the need for portable, low power devices also increases. Digital signal processors (DSP) are well suited to meet the signal processing requirements of such a system. These processors usually operate on fixed precision. This paper analyzes the issues that a system implementer faces implementing signal processing algorithms on fixed point processor. Specifically, we show the effect of different fixed point precisions in the implementation of FFT on the sensitivity of Fourier domain OCT systems.