Temperature Sensor Assisted Lifetime Enhancement of Satellite Embedded Systems via Multi-Core Task Mapping and DVFS

Abstract

Recently, thanks to the miniaturization and high performance of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) computer systems, small satellites get popular. However, due to the very expensive launching cost, it is critical to reduce the physical size and weight of the satellite systems such as cube satellites (CubeSats), making it infeasible to install high capacity batteries or solar panels. Thus, the low-power design is one of the most critical issues in the design of such systems. In addition, as satellites make a periodic revolution around the Earth in a vacuum, their operating temperature varies greatly. For instance, in a low earth orbit (LEO) CubeSats, the temperatures vary from 30 to −30 degrees Celsius, resulting in a big thermal cycle (TC) in the electronic parts that is known to be one of the most critical reliability threats. Moreover, such LEO CubeSats are not fully protected by active thermal control and thermal insulation due to the cost, volume, and weight problems. In this paper, we propose to utilize temperature sensors to maximize the lifetime reliability of the LEO satellite systems via multi-core mapping and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) under power constraint. As conventional reliability enhancement techniques primarily focus on reducing the temperature, it may cause enlarged TCs, making them even less reliable. On the contrary, we try to maintain the TC optimal in terms of reliability with respect to the given power constraint. Experimental evaluation shows that the proposed technique improves the expected lifetime of the satellite embedded systems by up to 8.03 times in the simulation of Nvidia’s Jetson TK1.

Reliability Optimization of Real-Time Satellite Embedded System Under Temperature Variations

“…As the vendor modeled the temperature behavior of the system using the same model as ours and released the parameter, we just borrow the numbers from their modeling [13]. That is, the thermal resistance (junction to case) in the GR712RC is 4 • C/W , in Equation 5, the thermal conductance G is set to 0.25W/ • C. For the thermal capacitance parameter, C, we used 2.34J/ • C according to [21].…”

“…2) TC-Aware Co-Optimization of Soft-/Hard-error Reliability Adjustment in the highest temperature interval: It is known that the TC effect may be critical in the lifetime of the satellite systems [21]. In this regard, it is beneficial to reduce the difference between the highest and the lowest temperatures.…”

“…Thus far, most hard-error reliability enhancement techniques have tried to keep the temperature as low as possible in order to mitigate the EM, TDDB, and SM effects. However, when it comes to satellite systems, it has been reported that this may not be the case due to the excessive adverse effect from TC [21]. Whilst a lifetime enhancement technique, that is aware of the TC effect, has been proposed in [21], the softerror concern has not been considered at all.…”

An Integrated Millimeter-Wave Satellite Radiometer Working at Room-Temperature with High Photon Conversion Efficiency

“…The thermal occupation of optical modes is negligible at room temperature, and low noise detection can be readily achieved via photodetectors with little or no cooling [ 6 ]. This significantly reduces the cost, weight, and volume of the receiver and is especially advantageous in satellite radiometers, where the lack of a cryostat increases the satellite mission’s lifetime [ 7 ]. Although LN has one of the strongest Pockels effects available in optically transparent media, the second-order susceptibility tensor ( ) is on the order of tens of limiting the upconversion efficiency in standard setups.…”