Adaptive Linear Predictor FIR Filter Based on the Cyclone V FPGA With HPS to Reduce Narrow Band RFI in Radio Detection of Cosmic Rays

We are presenting a new approach to a filtering of radio frequency interference (RFI) in the Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA), which studies the electromagnetic part of the extensive air showers. Radio stations can observe radio signals caused by coherent emissions due to geomagnetic radiation and charge excess processes. AERA observes the frequency band from 30 to 80 MHz. This range is highly contaminated by human-made RFI. In order to improve the signal to noise ratio RFI filters are used in AERA to suppress this contamination. The filter has already been tested with real AERA radio stations in the Argentinean Pampas with very successful results. The linear equations were solved either in the virtual soft-core NIOS® processor (implemented in the FPGA chip as a net of logic elements) or in the external Voipac PXA270M ARM processor. The NIOS® processor is relatively slow (50 MHz internal clock), and the calculations performed in an external processor consume a significant amount of time for data exchange between the FPGA and the processor. Tests showed very good efficiency of the RFI suppression for stationary (long-term) contaminations. However, we observed short-time contaminations, which could not be suppressed either by the IIR-notch filter or by the FIR filter based on the linear predictions. For the LP FIR filter, the refresh time of the filter coefficients was too long and the filter did not keep up with the changes in the contamination structure, mainly due to a long calculation time in a slow processors. We propose to use the Cyclone® V SE chip with an embedded micro-controller operating with a 925 MHz internal clock to significantly reduce the refreshment time of the FIR coefficients. First results in the laboratory are very promising.