Triple redundant self-scrubbing integrated circuit
AssigneeHughes Electronics Corporation
InventorKirk Kohnen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fault tolerant integrated circuit employs triple redundant storage of data and continuous voting to protect the data from Single Event Upset, or SEU. The integrated circuit includes three or more registers and a majority voter. The three registers are connected in series to each other with the output of the first register being connected to the input of the second register and the output of the second register being connected to the input of the third register. The majority voter is connected to the output of each register and generates a signal corresponding to the majority of all of the register outputs. The output of the majority voter is connected to the input of the first register, thereby correcting any incorrect data stored in the registers.
Claims14
A fault tolerant integrated circuit comprising:
- first register having a first input and a first output having a fast output coupled thereto;
- second register having a second input and a second output, said second input coupled to said first output;
- a third register having a third input and a third output, said third input coupled to said second output;
- and
- majority voter having a plurality of voter inputs and a voter output, said plurality of voter inputs coupled to said first, second, and third outputs, said voter output coupled to said first input, wherein said voter output corresponds to a majority of said first, second, and third outputs, thereby correcting any incorrect data stored in said first, second, or third registers.
A satellite fault tolerant integrated circuit system comprising:
- a ground station;
- a satellite in orbit and in communication with said ground station, said satellite having a fault tolerant integrated circuit comprising:
- a first register having a first input and a first output having a fast output coupled thereto;
- a second register having a second input and a second output, said second input coupled to said first output;
- a third register having a third input and a third output, said third output coupled to said second output;
- and
- a majority voter having a plurality of voter inputs and a voter output, said plurality of voter inputs coupled to said first, second, and third outputs, said voter output coupled to said first input, wherein said voter output corresponds to a majority of said first, second, and third outputs, thereby correcting any incorrect data stored in said first, second, or third registers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.