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SEU mitigation for half-latches in Xilinx Virtex FPGAs

Journal Article · · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

The performance, in-system reprogrammability, flexibility, and reduced costs of SRAM-based field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) make them very interesting for high-speed on-orbit data processing, but the current generation of radiation-tolerant SRAM-based FPGAs are based on commercial-off-the-shelf technologies and, consequently, are susceptible to single-event upset effects. In this paper, we discuss in detail the consequences of radiation-induced single-event upsets (SEUs) in the state of half-latch structures found in Xilinx Virtex FPGAs and describe methods for mitigating the effects of half-latch SEUs. One mitigation method's effectiveness is then illustrated through experimental data gathered through proton accelerator testing at Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, University of California-Davis. For the specific design and mitigation methodology tested, the mitigated design demonstrated more than an order of magnitude improvement in reliability over the unmitigated version of the design in regards to average proton fluence until circuit failure.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
819344
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-03-5043
Journal Information:
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 50; ISSN 0018-9499
Publisher:
IEEE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (2)

Reconfigurable Computing in Space: From Current Technology to Reconfigurable Systems-on-a-chip conference October 2003
Accelerator validation of an FPGA SEU simulator journal December 2003

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