Analysis of the error susceptibility of a field programmable gate array-based image compressor through random event injection simulation

The successful use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices on board space applications requires the use of fault mitigation methods because of the effects of space radiation in microelectronics devices. This study describes a scheme for the random injection of single event transients/upsets to evaluate the viability of employing COTS field programmable gate array for an onboard, low-complexity, remote-sensing image data compressor. The fault injection features are added to the application to be tested by modifying its hardware description language source code. Then the tests are executed by simulation, with or without the inclusion of fault mitigation methods, so that comparative evaluations can be quickly obtained. The evaluation results (robustness enhancement against area) of different fault mitigation methods are presented, with good estimates of the behaviour of the hardware implementation of the application in a space radiation environment.