• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.519-524
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• 2007

The OBC(on-board computer) of a satellite which plays a role of the controller for the satellite should be equipped with preventive measures against transient errors caused by SEU(single event upset). Since memory devices are pretty much susceptible to these transient errors, it is essential to protect memory devices against SFU. A common method exploits an error detection and correction code and additional memory devices, combined with periodic memory scrubbing. This paper proposes an effective memory scrubbing scheme for the OBC of STSAT-2. The memory system of the OBC is briefly mentioned and the reliability of the information stored in the memory system is analyzed. The result of the reliability analysis shows that there exist optimal scrubbing periods achieving the maximum reliability for allowed overall scrubbing overhead and they are dependent on the significance of the information stored. These optimal scrubbing periods from a reliability point of view are derived analytically.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.443-448
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• 2014

Soft errors in memory devices that caused by radiation are the main threat from a reliability point of view. This threat can be commonly overcome with the combination of SEC (Single-Error Correction) codes and scrubbing technique. The interleaving architecture can give memory devices the ability of tolerating these soft errors, especially against multiple-bit soft errors. And the interleaving distance plays a key role in building the tolerance against multiple-bit soft errors. This paper proposes a reliability model of an interleaved memory device which suffers from multiple-bit soft errors and are protected by a combination of SEC code and scrubbing. The proposed model shows how the interleaving distance works to improve the reliability and can be used to make a decision in determining optimal scrubbing technique to meet the demands in reliability.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.1101-1105
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• 2011

Radiation particles can introduce temporary errors in memory systems. To protect against these errors, so-called soft errors, error detection and correcting codes are used. In addition, scrubbing is applied which is a fundamental technique to avoid the accumulation of soft errors. This paper introduces an optimal scrubbing scheme, which is suitable for a system with auto error detection and correction logic. An auto error detection and correction logic can correct soft errors without CPU's writing operation. The proposed scrubbing scheme leads to maximum reliability by considering both allowable scrubbing load and the periodic accesses to memory by the tasks running in the system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.677-680
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• 2011

Error detection and correcting codes are typically used to protect against soft errors. In addition, scrubbing is applied which is a fundamental technique to avoid the accumulation of soft errors. This paper introduces an optimal scrubbing scheme, which is suitable for a system with auto error detection and correction logic. An auto error detection and correction logic can correct soft errors without CPU's writing operation. The proposed scrubbing scheme leads to maximum reliability by considering both allowable scrubbing load and the periodic accesses to memory by the tasks running in the system.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.73-79
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• 2003

Usual satellite design adopts hardware Error Detection and Correction (EDAC) circuitary for memory elements to endure proper operation in space radiation environment and periodic read-back(scrubbing) scheme to remove errors occurred and to prevent further accumulation of errors, in parallel, But lack of detail radiation test data upset rates of KOMPSAT-2 mass storage was estimated very worse compared to that of KOMPSAT-1, which was evaluated from very precise radiation test. Although upset rates were evaluated enough low to accommodate by KOMPSAT-2 Flight Software, hardware scrubbing scheme is studied to shorten scrubbing time as well. This paper describes hardware scrubbing architecture having minimum 1.88 minutes scrubbing interval over 1 Gbits memory.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.701-704
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• 2011

The reliability of a computer system largely depends on that of its memory systems, which are vulnerable to soft errors. Soft errors can be coped with a combination of an Error Detection & Correction circuit and scrubbing operation. Smaller geometries and lower voltage of advanced memories makes them more prone to suffer multibit soft errors. A memory structure against multibit soft errors and a suitable scrubbing scheme for it were proposed. This paper introduces a key issue for the scrubbing of the memories with protection against multibit soft errors and the result of the performance analysis from a reliability point of view.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2012

Because the contact time between satellite and ground station is very limited in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) satellite, all telemetry data generated on spacecraft bus are stored in a mass memory and downlinked to the ground together with real time data during the contact time. The mass memory is initialized in the first system initialization phase and the page status of each memory block is generated step by step. After the completion of the system initialization, the telemetry data are continuously stored and the stored data are played back to the ground by command. And the memory scrubbing is periodically performed for correction of single bit error which can be generated on harsh space environment. This paper introduces the mass memory operation method for telemetry processing of LEO satellite. It includes a general mass memory data structure, the methods of mass memory initialization, scrubbing, data storage and downlink, and mass memory management of primary and redundant mass memory.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.1174-1180
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• 2011

Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA)s are replacing traditional integrated circuits for space applications due to their lower development cost as well as reconfigurability. However, they are very sensitive to single event upset (SEU) caused by space radiation environment. In order to mitigate the SEU, on-board computer of STSAT-3 employed a triple modular redundancy(TMR) and scrubbing scheme. Experimental results showed that upset threshold energy was improved from 10.6 MeV to 20.3 MeV when the TMR and the scrubbing were applied to the on-board computer. Combining the experimental results with the orbit simulation results, calculated bit-flip rate of on-board computer is 1.23 bit-flips/day assuming in the worst case of STSAT-3 orbit.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.1036-1042
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• 2011

This paper presents an algorithm that conducts automatic memory scrubbing operated by dedicated hardwares. The proposed algorithm is designed so that it can scrub entire memory in a given scrub period, while minimally affecting the execution of flight softwares. The scrub controller is constructed in a form of state machines, which have two execution modes - normal mode and burst mode. The deadline event generator and period tick generator are designed in a separate way to support the behavior of the scrub controller. The proposed controller is implemented in VHDL code to validate its applicability. A simple version of the controller is also applied to mass memory modules used in STSAT-3.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.389-394
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• 2010

This paper describes the conceptual design of mass memory unit for high speed data processing and mass memory management in the STSAT-3 compared to that of STSAT-2. The FPGA directly controls the data receiving from two payloads with the maximum 100Mbps speed and 32Gb mass memory management to satisfy these requirements. We used SRAM-based FPGA from XILINX having fast operating speed and large logic cells. Therefore, the Triple Modular Redundancy(TMR) and configuration memory scrubbing techniques will also be used to protect FPGA from Single Event Upset(SEU) in space.