Benefits of using functional safety in commercial space applications

Abstract

Functional safety is relevant whenever a product or system contains electrical, electronic or programmable electronic elements that perform safety-critical functions. It is used in many areas of technology, process industry (e.g. energy sector), automotive (transport sector), mechanical engineering and aviation. The presentation will compare the approaches and concepts of Functional Safety based on ISO 61508 with the RAMS approaches of the space industry, in particular the Flight Detection Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) approach.

The presentation will provide an insight into the possibilities of minimizing risk at the component level, especially for complex integrated circuits. Traditionally, the space industry has focused on qualifying the components used for the extreme environmental parameters and the typically very long duration of use in space. However, as ICs have become more complex, there is now also an increasing risk of introducing systematic faults during the extensive chip, hardware and software development.

The presentation will show how other market sectors work to eliminate systematic faults as far as possible and how so-called random faults can be detected as quickly as possible and their effects ideally eliminated or at least minimized with the help of the IC’s ‘functional safety features’ such as ECC, lock-step or BIST (Built-in Self Test).

The built-in self-diagnostic capabilities of functional safety components do further enable simplification of the ground support equipment and do also provide detailed monitoring capabilities for analysis during space flight and in Lessons Learned or Return of Experience efforts after the mission has completed.

The successful mission of the Mars Rotorcraft Ingenuity from JPL (NASA) provides an insight into the practical application of functional safety in space applications.

The presentation is intended as a suggestion on how one could leverage features and IP blocks in semiconductor products and their associated tools developed for functional safety also for space applications.