Date of Award
6-16-2008
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
Department
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
First Advisor
Yong C. Kim, PhD
Abstract
This work presents a built, tested, and demonstrated test structure that is low-cost, flexible, and re-usable for robust radiation experimentation, primarily to investigate memory, in this case SRAMs and SRAM-based FPGAs. The space environment can induce many kinds of failures due to radiation effects. These failures result in a loss of money, time, intelligence, and information. In order to evaluate technologies for potential failures, a detailed test methodology and associated structure are required. In this solution, an FPGA board was used as the controller platform, with multiple VHDL circuit controllers, data collection and reporting modules. The structure was demonstrated by programming an SRAM-based FPGA board as the device under test (DUT) with various types of adders, counters and RAM modules. The controllers, hardware, and data collection operations were tested and validated using gamma radiation from a Co-60 source at the Ohio State University Nuclear Reactor to irradiate the DUT. The test structure is easily modified to allow for a broad range of experiments on the same DUT. In addition, this structure is easily adaptable for other memory types, such as DRAM, FlashRam, and MRAM. These additions will be discussed further in this document. The system fits in a backpack and costs less than $1000.
AFIT Designator
AFIT-GE-ENG-08-11
DTIC Accession Number
ADA489580
Recommended Citation
Hockenberry, Eugene B., "Hardware, Software and Data Analysis Techniques for SRAM-Based Field Programmable Gate Array Circuits" (2008). Theses and Dissertations. 2770.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/2770