Input-Output Logic based Fault-Tolerant Design Technique for SRAM-based FPGAs

Abstract: Effects of radiation on electronic circuits used in extra-terrestrial applications and radiation prone environments need to be corrected. Since FPGAs offer flexibility, the effects of radiation on them need to be studied and robust methods of fault tolerance need to be devised. In this paper a new fault-tolerant design strategy has been presented. This strategy exploits the relation between changes in inputs and the expected change in output. Essentially, it predicts whether or not a change in the output is expected and thereby calculates the error. As a result this strategy reduces hardware and time redundancy required by existing strategies like Duplication with Comparison (DWC) and Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR). The design arising from this strategy has been simulated and its robustness to fault-injection has been verified. Simulations for a 16 bit multiplier show that the new design strategy performs better than the state-of-the-art on critical factors such as hardware redundancy, time redundancy and power consumption.