Novel dynamic module multiple redundancy for optically reconfigurable gate arrays

Demand for programmable devices for space applications is increasing day-by-day to support hardware repair functions, hardware update functions, and hardware acceleration for space systems. One candidate is an optically reconfigurable gate array (ORGA) because the ORGA can be reconfigured with invalid configuration data that are damaged by high-energy charged particles in a radiation-rich space environment Therefore, the ORGA presents the advantage that the allowable amount of configuration data damage is greater than that by FPGAs with an error checking and correction method (ECC). Moreover, the ORGA´s programmable gate array is reconfigurable at nanosecond-order, with more than 100 reconfiguration contexts. Results show that an ORGA is an extremely robust multi-context programmable device that is robust against space radiation in terms of its configuration data. However, under a common use, an ORGA´s programmable gate array itself is never as robust against space radiation as that of an application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) because the gate array´s programmable architecture is the same as that of FPGAs. Therefore, this paper discusses a novel dynamic module multiple redundancy scheme that can increase the robust capabilities of a gate array on an ORGA.