2016 Single - Event - Effect - Vulnerability - Analysis - and - On-Orbit - Error - Rate - Prediction
2016 Single - Event - Effect - Vulnerability - Analysis - and - On-Orbit - Error - Rate - Prediction
Single Event Effect Vulnerability Analysis and On-orbit Error Rate Prediction
Abstract—On-orbit single event effect error rate is predicted depended on the fault model and the accuracy is limited.
combining accelerated radiation test and space radiation In order to overcome disadvantage of these methods,
environment model for a FPGA-based signal processing some researchers estimate the error rate by combining SEE
platform. With partial TMR and reconfiguration mitigation static cross-section predictions and fault-injections [6], [7].
method, there is no single event latch is observed when the
Accelerated radiation tests is used to acquire the static
surface linear energy transfer of heavy ion is 99.8 MeV.cm2/mg,
and the error/SEU ratio is 4.7431e-004. Error rate of four single event upset (SEU) cross section of device, fault-
different orbits (400 km, 800 km, 1200 km, 35784 km) is injection method is used to acquire dynamic SEU cross
calculated, the most vulnerability orbit is the 1200 km orbit, section, the combined result is used to estimate the error
and the average first error time is 521.8 days. rate at different linear energy transfer (LET) of ions.
Several methods and software are developed to
Keywords-single event effect; vulnerability; error rate; calculate the SEU rate in space environment by different
prediction; FPGA research organization. The Cosmic Ray Effects on
MicroElectronics (CRÈME) code was first released in
I. INTRODUCTION 1986[11]. The latest version of Space Radiation 7.0 toolkit
Single-event effects (SEEs) are induced by the can be used to calculate the space radiation environment of
interaction of an ionizing particle with electronic typical satellite orbits including geostationary orbit,
components, such as single-event transients (SET), single- medium earth orbit, and low earth orbit [4]. French TRAD
event upset (SEU), and multi-bit upset (MBU)[1]. With company developed the OMERE software based on the
very-large-scale integration (VLSI) being widely used in space radiation environment model of AP8, AE8,
space-borne electronic systems and recorded as accidental CREME86, CREME96. The software can simulate the
failures of space instruments, such as Field-Programmable satellite's orbit, and make use of a variety of space particle
Gate Array (FPGA), SEEs have become the main cause of model to calculate the satellite in orbit radiation
such failures [2], [3]. The Beijing Institute of Spacecraft environment of energetic particle flux spectrum and the
System Engineering has studied 272 satellite failures since linear energy transform (LET) spectra[12].
the 20th century around the world, results of which indicate This paper studies the SEE vulnerability of a SRAM-
that 40% of the total number of failures was induced by based FPGA based signal processing platform, and study
SEEs [4]. the method to predict on-orbit error rate. It’s meaningful
It’s a hot topic to evaluate SEE vulnerability before for engineers to know the SEE characteristic before the
space-borne electronic systems is launched. Several space-borne electronic systems is launched, and the
methods have been developed to study the problem. There corresponding mitigation method can be adopted to
are four kinds of methods, on-orbit observation [5], mitigate the soft errors. Compared the above four methods,
accelerated radiation test [6], [7], fault-injection[8], and we adopt heavy ion accelerated radiation test and space
analytical method [9], [10]. These methods are suitable to radiation environment model (proton and heavy ion) to
study for different design phase of space-borne electronic predict the soft error rate for FPGA based single
systems. On-orbit observation is the most actual method to processing platform.
know the results of space-borne electronic systems in space The remainder paper is arranged as following. The
environment, but it is most time wasted and expensive. second part is heavy ion SEE vulnerability based on
Accelerated radiation test is the method to generate high accelerated radiation test, the FPGA-based signal
energy particle by accelerator to radiate the circuits and processing platform is introduced, and the experimental
system, it is also time wasted and expensive, and it’s system is set up, the experimental condition and flow is
impossible to simulate the radiation environment of space. stated. In the third part, the experimental data is explained,
Fault injection and analytical method is to evaluate the and the current of platform is analyzed, and the SEU rate
SEE performance by injecting soft error to system, it is and error rate induced by the heavy ion is calculated. In the
Radiation Room
which will be sent to DSP. In DSP, the uplink signal is
NET >30m
capturing and doing the PLL, DLL and FLL filter
calculating. The accurate estimation of code delay and
Remote-computer
doppler frequency is done, and the remote command is
demodulated which will be sent to other satellite equipment. Figure 2. Structure of experimental system.
The downlink signal is sent to ADC. The Manage Unit is the
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The experimental system consists of remote computer, recover. To reduce fluence rate and restart the radiation, if
host-computer, net exchanger, digital power, manage unit the fluence rate in several particles remain current continued
and signal processing platform. Remote computer is in the to increase more than 30% and trigger current protection
operating room, it is connect to the net exchanger to control currents in excess of 2A, stopping the radiation. And we can
the host-computer. Others of the testing system are in the get the conclusion that the device has single event latch
radiation room. Host-computer is used to control the process (SEL).
of the experiment, and to record the experiment, including
the video and data. Net exchanger is the exchange core, it is Set up experimental system
used to connect all others of the testing system. Digital
power is used to control the on/off of the signal processing
platform, and to detect the current of the platform. Manage Check operation state of
experimental system
unit is part of the platform, and it is used to manage and
monitor the state of FPGA and DSP. Signal processing
platform is the key equipment of the testing system, FPGA SEL test and fluence rate
determined
and DSP is the SEE vulnerability devices. When the power
of platform is turned on, the manage unit reads the NO
configuration program form PROM, and configure the
SEL is not occurred
FPGA through SelectMAP interface and configure the DSP and fluence rate
through HPI interface. After the configuration is over, the is determined
platform is running the signal processing function.
Meanwhile, the manage unit monitors the working status of Yes
the FPGA and DSP. Manage unit reads back the
configuration frame data of the device and verify with the Whether error
gold frame data stored in the PROM every 1.7 seconds. If is occurred
NO Yes
SEU is detected, the configuration data of the device will be
scrubbed and reconfigured. Meanwhile, the running state Record function NO
Whether error
signal of FPGA and DSP is monitored, the normal state parameter; is recovered
signal is quadrate signal. If state signal is not normal, the Continue
FPGA and DSP will be reloaded. radiation Yes
Send reset command
3) Experimental flow
Experimental flow is shown in Fig. 3. NO NO
a) Setting up experimental system Whether the amount Whether error
Setting up experimental system as shown in Fig. 2. of ions is reached is recovered
Connecting net wire between different equipments. Yes Yes
Connecting USB line between host computer and digital
power, setting up remote computer and host computer with stop the radiation ion
the remote desktop connection. Setting digital power output
voltage current limiting for 8V-2A. Connecting between the NO Whether error
digital power and signal processing platform. is recovered
b) Checking operation state of experimental system
Turning on digital power from the PC control interface, Yes
it is used to observe whether the working current of platform Data analysis
End
is normal, whether FPGA and DSP is successfully loaded
program; whether observation data is normal, and whether Figure 3. Experimental flow of heavy ion testing.
the function of platform is normal. Keeping the system to
run correctly for 5 minutes, includes all work modes, and (3) To observe the amount of FPGA SEU which is
collecting the raw data of the platform. Aiming at the chip of recorded by computer and displayed, adjusting the ion
FPGA by adjusting ion beam. fluence rate form small to large, so that the number of SEU
c) Accelerated radiation experiment is about 1~3 during the readback and verify cycle of FPGA
(1) Turning on the experimental system, starting the (1.7 seconds).
source of radiation after the system reached steady state. (4) After the appropriate ion fluence rate is determined
Smaller fluence rate of ion is sent at the beginning, (completed in 3 minutes) and without the existence of SEL,
observing the working state of system. restart the ion radiation.
(2) Observing whether SEL is occurred. According to (5) Recording fluence rate every 10 seconds, recording
the SEL criterion, if the current continues to increase, more the performance parameters of platform, observing and
than 30%, stop radiation to observe whether the current can judging whether the function is normal. If no error is
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occurred, continue the radiation until the amount of ions 4) Turning off the digital power, closing the beam.
reached. If error is occurred, go to step (6). Collecting the experimental data and be ready to analyse.
(6) After an error is occurring, recording error
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
phenomenon, error time, the amount of ions, current value,
et al. Continuing the radiation for 10 seconds with the same
A. Experimental Data
condition, observing whether the platform can recover by
the reconfiguration itself. Experimental data includes SEU amount of FPGA,
(7) If the function of platform can recover within 10 verification amount of FPGA, state signal abnormal amount
seconds, then continue radiation until the amount of ions of FPGA, reconfiguration amount of FPGA, the time of
reached, go to step (5). Otherwise, go to step (8). radiation(s), and the total amount of heavy ion.
(8) If the platform can’t recover by detecting and The total amount configuration bit of FPGA is 6841856
reconfiguration operation itself within 10 seconds, we will bit.
send the reset command to reload the program for FPGA So, the SEU rate of device is
and DSP, observing whether the function of platform can SEU _ amount 1
V SEU u
recover. If the function of platform can recover within 10 Particle _ amount Configuration _ bit _ amount
seconds, then continue radiation until the amount of ions The error rate of device is
reached, go to step (5). Otherwise, go to step (9). Error _ amount 1
V ERROR u
(9) If the system function can’t be restored, stopping the Particle _ amount Configuration _ bit _ amount
radiation ion, and observing whether the function of The error event is a phenomenon that the system
platform can recover by detecting and reconfiguration function is disabled and can’t be recovered by detection and
operation itself. If the function of platform can recover reconfiguration (DETEC&RECONFIG) of the platform. The
within 10 seconds, then continue radiation until the amount system function can’t be recovered by restoration
of ions reached, go to step (5). Otherwise, stop the radiation. (RESTOR).
The experimental data is shown in Table III.
Reconfig-2
1560 3000
2500
SEU of FPGA
1540 Reconfig-4
2000
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average flux rate is about 7.274 particles/s. Figure 6 shows belt proton, electron, X-ray, from the sun of the proton,
the verify amount of FPGA. As we know, manage unit particles from cosmic proton, particles, and ray. By using
verifies the FPGA every 1.7s. The verify amount is smaller these spatial ion LET- flux spectra and proton E- flux
than the SEU amount of FPGA. There are six times of spectra, the SEU rate of the satellite devices can be
reconfiguration. The corresponding time is 1307s, 3300s, calculated based on the SEU cross section data of
3592s, 4824s, 5562 and 5914s. And the error amount of accelerated ground heavy ion radiation.
platform is 6. When FPGA is reconfigured, the SEU counter Error rate can be estimated by combining with the orbit
is cleared to 0. of high-energy proton and heavy ion distribution and
700
radiation experiment. In general, the calculation of SEU rate
Reconfig-2 and error rate contain two aspects, one is the space heavy
600
ions, and the other is the space proton. The former can be
500 Reconfig-4
calculated combined with orbital space heavy ions energy
Verify of FPGA
400
Reconfig-5 spectra and the heavy ion-LET curve, while the latter
300 requires space orbit proton energy spectrum and proton
200
Reconfig-1 Reconfig-6 radiation data. Due to the test conditions and the funds, the
Reconfig-3
100 heavy ion test is very limited, and proton radiation in China
0
is even more scarce.
In order to calculate the SEU rate of typical orbit, the
-100
parameter needed is heavy ion LET-flux spectrum, proton-
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Time/s flux. Prediction calculation scheme can be described as,
Figure 6. Reconfiguration amount of FPGA during radiation. combined with corresponding heavy ion testing data (SEU
cross section - LET curve), the proton SEU cross section -
There are there reasons which results in the Energy curve is calculated by FOM method. LET-flux
reconfiguration of FPGA. The first reason is that the SEU spectra of ions and energy-flux spectrum of proton is
cumulation of FPGA. The corresponding time is 1307s, calculated by OMERE software for typical satellite orbit.
4824s, and 5914s. The second reason is the reset command The SEU rate can be calculated using the SEU cross section
by human, the corresponding time is 3300s. Figure 7(a) curve and space ionizing spectra, the detailed calculation
shows the four reconfiguration. The third reason is the steps as shown in Figure 8. Then, the error rate can be
abnormal state of FPGA, the corresponding time is 3592s calculated by error rate- SEU cross section.
and 5562s. Figure 7(b) shows the two reconfiguration.
Ion energy-flux SEU-LET data Proton energy-flux
Proton
Ion LET-flux
dN transportation
dL
(a) (b)
Figure 7. (a) Reconfiguration of FPGA. f
dN
f
(b) Reconfiguration of FPGA due to the abnormal state of FPGA. SEU _ rate ³ W ( L) dL
dL SEU _ rate ³ I ( E )V ( E )dE
E0
L0
IV. ON-ORBIT ERROR RATE PREDICTION
f
A. On-bit Error Rate Prediction Method Error _ rate ³ (SEU _ rate(heavy _ ion) SEU _ rate( proton))dE
E0
French TRAD company developed the OMERE Figure 8. Calculation methods used to estimate SEU rate.
software based on the space radiation environment model of
AP8, AE8, CREME86, CREME96. The software can B. Results and Discussion
simulate the satellite's orbit with a variety of space particle Finland JYFL Cyclotron Laboratory has finished
model, to calculate the satellite in orbit radiation radiation experiment with several kinds of heavy ions for
environment of energetic particle flux spectrum, and the Xilinx Virtex II SRAM-based FPGAXQR2V3000.
LET spectra. Ions include the earth's Van Allen radiation
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Orbit Altitude SEU rate Error rate
/device/day /platform/day
LEO1 800 km 98° 1.47 6.9723e-4
LEO2 400 km 98° 0.163 7.7312e-5
LEO3 1200 km 98° 4.04 1.9e-3
GEO 35784 km 98° 3.39 1.6e-3
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