Feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithm for overhead reduction in analog checkers

Abstract

Self-checking in analog circuits is more difficult than in digital circuits. The technique proposed by A. Chatterjee (1993) can address concurrent error detection and correction in linear analog circuits and hence the reliability of the original circuit is greatly improved. However, hardware overhead is an important issue in this technique, which has never been addressed before. This paper proposes an algorithm for reduction of hardware overhead in the analog checker, and also presents a series of theoretical results, including the concept of all-non-zero solutions and several existence conditions of such solutions. As the basis of the algorithm, these results are new in the mathematical world and can be used to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithm. Without changing the original circuit, the proposed algorithm can not only reduce the number of passive elements, but also the number of analog operators so that the error detection circuitry in the checker has optimal hardware overhead.<>