This paper presents RADSoM, an innovative approach to modular space grade FPGA hardware reuse. The proposed module significantly reduces design timelines, cost and risk of increasingly complex board and box designs while maximizing the flexibility to adapt to a wide array of mission requirements and new device technologies as they emerge. Digital hardware designs continue to integrate more capability onto single die solutions. The most notable of these integrated solutions known as System on a Chip (SoC) Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provide significant utility while driving up the complexity of board designs due to the high Input/Output (IO) density and necessary support circuitry. The complexity and risk of these SoC devices can be contained (and subsequently reduced) by designing them into a System on Module (SoM). To date, RADSoM is the only proposed rad-hard System on Module (SoM) solution for the Space market. RADSoM will contain the design complexity of a radiation hardened/tolerant SoC FPGA solution to an easy-to-use, highly-reusable mezzanine card that will truly be “build to print” for a wide variety of space applications. This paper presents the entirety of the RADSoM development including conceptualization, risk reduction activities, component selection, design, analysis, fabrication and test of prototype RADSoM units, followed be a brief discussion of the many potential uses for a space grade FPGA SoM.
RADSoM - a System on Module Approach for Reusable Spacecraft Processing Elements
2020-03-01
1404822 byte
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English