Checksum-based concurrent error detection in linear analog systems with second and higher order stages

The problem of concurrent error detection in a class of linear analog systems containing second and higher order stages is discussed in this paper. Individual stages of such systems have transfer functions whose denominators contain the terms s/sup 2/,s/sup 3/,. . ., where s is the complex frequency of the transfer function H/sub i/(s) of the i'th stage. Such systems are widely used to realize a variety of analog and switched-capacitor filters and control systems. The author assumes that a fault can cause the value of a passive circuit component to deviate from its normal value, result in a short or an open line or change the operating characteristics of the operational amplifiers. A small amount of additional hardware is used to perform error detection, its size being virtually independent of the size of the circuit on which error detection is to be performed. Further, the sensitivity of the error detection scheme to changes in the component values can be easily adjusted.<<ETX>>