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    • Radiation test results of consumer type S-RAM FPGA

    Paper number

    IAC-05-B3.1.07

    Author

    Dr. Nozomu Nishinaga, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan

    Year

    2005

    Abstract
    Expanding the capacity of satellite communication systems requires 
the use of onboard switching and regenerative relay techniques. However,  there areobvious difficulties in applying new communication technology that has appeared since a launch if a new modem and baseband switch are  required  to be loaded on a satellite. Currently, the lifetime of a communications satellite in orbit is from 10 to 20 years, and it is impossible to exchange or upgrade mission equipment loaded on a satellite after its deployment in space. A flexible communication system can be implemented by using the -SDR Software Defined Radio- system as the onboard modem to
overcome the issues. SDR systems that can respond to various communication systems have been studied extensively. With reconfiguration in orbit, the latest communications technology can be introduced into the onboard modems. There are two ways to implement SDR system. One is using Digital signal processor and ordinary software.
The other is by S-RAM type FPGA and special software that configure devices in the FPGA. In general, the last way has more flexibility  than the first way.
In space radiation environment, it is well known that memory contents are upset by attacking of heavy ions. The upset affects the program and  data region in general computation mechanism. On the other hand, in reconfigurable computation, the upset affects not only data region but also circuit information. So, the circuit will be changed by the upset.
Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the radiation effects 
on S-RAMtype FPGA.
To evaluate the effect of space radiation, a radiation test was carried out in November 2003 at TIARA in Takasaki, Japan. The device selected for testing was a Virtex II Pro (XC2VP7-5FG456). In the test, three heavy ions, nitrogen, neon, and krypton, were injected into the device  and the number of single-event upsets was counted. The radiation testing results of the FPGA and results of reliability analysis are described in this paper.
    Abstract document

    IAC-05-B3.1.07.pdf

    Manuscript document

    IAC-05-B3.1.07.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

    To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.