Real Time Fault Detection and Diagnostics Using FPGA-Based Architectures

摘要

Errors within circuits caused by radiation continue to be an important concern to developers. A new methodology of real time fault detection and diagnostics utilizing FPGA based architectures while under radiation were investigated in this research. The contributions of this research are focused on three areas; a full test platform to evaluate a circuit while under radiation, an algorithm to detect and diagnose fault locations within a circuit, and finally to characterize Triple Design Triple Modular Redundancy (TDTMR), a new form of TMR. Five different test setups, injected fault test, gamma radiation test, thermal radiation test, optical laser test, and optical flash test, were used to assess the effectiveness of these three research goals. Based on the five tests, the testing platform operated successfully. The detection and diagnosis algorithm was able to detect errors. The injected fault test was the only test that was able to properly diagnosis the location of the fault. The results also unexpectedly showed that the voting unit failed before any of the adders while under radiation. Dose rate versus total dose has a differing effect on the DUT. The goals of this research was met by completing a fully interchangeable and operational testing platform, an algorithm that detects and diagnosis errors in real time, and an initial evaluation of TDTMR.