Recently, reconfigurable devices are widely used in the fields of small amount production and trial production. They are also expected to be utilized in such mission-critical fields as space development, because system update and pseudo-repair can be achieved remotely by reconfiguring. However, in the case of conventional reconfigurable devices, configuration memory upsets caused by radiation and alpha particles reconfigure the device unpredictably, resulting in fatal system failures. Therefore, a reconfigurable device with high fault-tolerance against configuration upsets is required. In this paper, we propose an architecture of a fault-tolerant reconfigurable device that autonomously repairs configuration upsets by itself without interrupting system operations. The device consists of a 2D array of "Autonomous-Repair Cells" each of which repairs its upsets autonomously. The architecture has a scalability in fault tolerance; a finer-grained Autonomous-Repair Cell provides higher fault-tolerance. To determine the architecture, we analyze four autonomous repair techniques of the cell experimentally. Then, two autonomous repair techniques, simple multiplexing (S.M.) and memory multiplexing (M.M.), are applied; the former to programmable logics and the latter to cell-to-cell routing resources. Through evaluation, we show that proposed device achieves more than 10 years average lifetime against configuration upsets even in a severe situation such as a satellite orbit.

Reconfigurable devices are expected to be utilized in such mission-critical fields as space development and undersea cables, because system updates and pseudo-repair can be achieved remotely by reconfiguring. However, conventional reconfigurable devices suffer from memory-bit upset caused by charged particles in space which results in fatal system problems. In this paper, we propose an architecture of a fault-tolerant reconfigurable device. The proposed device is divided into "autonomous-repair cells" with embedded control circuits. The autonomous-repair cell proposed in this paper is based on error detection and correction (EDAC) and uses hardware and time redundancy. From evaluation, it is shown that the proposed architecture achieves sufficient reliability against configuration memory upset. Trade-offs between performance and cost are also analyzed.

We have developed the new energy storage system utilizing a radical redox reaction of poly (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinoxy methacrylate), PTMA. The coin-type cell with PTMA cathode demonstrates the charge capacity of is 72 Ah/kg, which corresponds to 65% of the theoretical capacity, and the coulombic efficiency was 90% in first charge-discharge cycle. The results indicate that the stable polyradical cathodes are promising materials due to their high charge utilization and the possibilities for the wide diversity of molecular design.

We have developed a high-power organic radical battery for information technology equipment such as personal computers (PCs). The battery provides several minutes of backup power without an external uninterrupted power source. Since the built-in battery makes energy conversion from AC to DC, or DC to AC, unnecessary, it protects equipment from power failure with no loss of energy. The fabricated battery shows a high power density of 1 kW/L and is capable of driving a desktop PC for several minutes. The use of purely organic polyradicals, poly (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyloxy mathacrylate), for the cathode active material opens up a new field of high power density, environmentally friendly batteries.