Design methodology for mitigating transient errors in analogue and mixed-signal circuits

Abstract

N-tuple modular redundancy techniques have been widely used to improve the reliability of digital circuits. Unfortunately, an equivalent technique has been rarely used for analogue and mixed-signal systems. In this study, propose a redundancy-based fault-tolerant methodology is proposed to design highly reliable analogue and mixed-signal circuits. The key contribution of the proposed work is: (a) systematic sensitivity analysis to identify critical nodes in a circuit and (b) a design methodology for improving the reliability of analogue and mixed-signal circuits using an innovative mean voter. The mean voter is a low-power, small area, very high bandwidth and linearly scalable unit; and it works for both odd and even redundancy factors. For the proof of concept, the authors designed two analogue-to-digital converters and an analogue filter, which are used in mixed-signal applications. Experimental results are reported to verify the concept and measure the system's reliability when failures, such as single upset transient faults, occur.