Towards a Certifiable Integration of SRAM-Based FPGAs in Safety-Critical Automotive Systems

Advanced interconnected electronic systems play crucial roles in recent vehicle generations and have resulted in a significant increase of mileage and the introduction of several novel automotive features. For complex driver assistance applications, FPGAs have started to replace established embedded or signal processors, providing high-performance processing capabilities at modest energy consumption. However, their certification in safety-critical applications is a challenging task, which is due to their internal configuration memory-based computer architecture, requiring adapted analysis and error mitigation approaches. Using a recommended automotive safety analysis technique, this paper evaluates a generic in-vehicle FPGA-based computer platform regarding its certification limitations in automotive context. A suitable configuration memory safety concept for applications with highest safety integrity levels is then developed by combining established error mitigation mechanisms, which are also evaluated experimentally on an automotive prototyping platform. The obtained concept supports the execution of safety-critical applications on reconfigurable logic and proposes a viable certification path for automotive FPGAs considering recent safety standards.