Browsing by Author "Thesnaar, Emile Jacobus"
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- ItemDevelopment of a radiation resistant communication node for satellite sub-systems(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-04) Thesnaar, Emile Jacobus; Barnard, Arno; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Within a complex electronic system, sub-system communication forms the backbone of the functionality of any satellite. It allows multiple processors to run simultaneously and data to be shared amongst them. Without it, a single processor would have to control the entire satellite. Not only would such a design then be overly complicated, but the processor would also not have sufficient capacity to service all the components efficiently. Furthermore the detrimental effects that radiation have on integrated circuits are well documented and can be anything from a single bit flip to a complete integrated circuit failure. If not repaired, a failure on a sub-system communication bus could lead to the loss of the entire satellite. Die goal is to create more radiation resistant Controller-Area-Network (CAN) node. Since a full triple modular redundant design will have a large footprint and high power consumption, a combination of techniques will be applied and tested. The goal is to achieve improved footprint utilisation over triple modular redundancy, while still maintaining good resistance to Single Event Upsets (SEU). By applying simulation, it was sufficiently proven that the implementation of the individual techniques used functioned according to expectations. These techniques included error detection and correction using Hamming Codes, single event transient filter and triple modular redundancy. Having applied these mitigation techniques, the footprint of the CAN controller increased by only 116%. Simulation showed that the Error Detection and Correction and Triple Modular Redundancy worked effectively with the CAN controller, and that the CAN controller could function as originally intended. Using radiation testing, the design proved to be more resistant to SEUs than the unmitigated CAN controller. It was thus shown that through using a combination of mitigation techniques, it is possible to develop an optimal design with a high level of resistance against Single Event Upsets, utilizing a smaller footprint than implementing Triple Modular Redundancy.