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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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14 years ago

Single Event Upset

Hi I am designing a control system that is intended to be used in a safety critical system. I am aware that SEU affect FPGAs in the atmosphere but do they pose a threat at ground level and be...
Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
14 years ago

All electronic components are susceptible to SEU's at some point. I suggest you read

www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp-01135-stxv-seu-mitigation.pdf

and

www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp-01012.pdf

In general, on the ground it's not a big deal, but in aircraft, and space, it's a significant concern. Flash based devices are more robust than ram based devices, so if you can fit the design in a flashed based CPLD, it would be less likely to have issues. (IE Max series)

If you need more functionality than a CPLD, Actel (Now MicroSemi) makes flashed based and fuse based fpgas. They are on the smaller scale, but some of the fuse based guys are certified for space applications.

Pete