Performance limit of finite wordlength FIR digital filters

Abstract

In many practical situations, it is necessary to represent the coefficients of a finite impulse response (FIR) digital filter by a finite number of bits. This not only degrades the filter frequency response but also introduces a theoretical limit on the performance of the filter. Derivation of a lower bound on filter degradation is the purpose of this paper. We consider a general case of a length N filter with a discrete set of allowable coefficients. A theorem that gives the lower bound on the increase in minimax approximation error that is caused by the finite wordlength restriction is presented. Its extension and application to filter design cases is demonstrated. The importance of this bound is not only theoretical. Its practical effectiveness is shown in the algorithm for optimal finite wordlength FIR filter design where it significantly reduces the amount of computation.