  Embedded RAM blocks (BRAMs) in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are
susceptible to single event effects (SEEs) induced by environmental factors
such as cosmic rays, heavy ions, alpha particles and so on. As technology
scales, the issue will be more serious. In order to tackle this issue, two
different error correcting codes (ECCs), the shortened Hamming codes and
shortened BCH codes, are investigated in this paper. The concrete design
methods of the codes are presented. Also, the codes are both implemented in
flash-based FPGAs. Finally, the synthesis report and simulation results are
presented in the paper. Moreover, the heavy-ion experiments are performed, the
experimental results indicate that the error cross-section using the shortened
Hamming codes can be reduced by two orders of magnitude compared with the
device without mitigation, and no errors are discovered in the experiments for
the device using the shortened BCH codes.
