Background: Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) can be used to overcome the software common cause failures (CCF)

thus is a more and more widely applied to design the Digital Reactor Protection System (DRPS). There are many companies such as State Nuclear Power Automation System Engineering Company (SNPAS

China)

RPC Radiy (Ukraine)

etc.

are doing research on FPGA-based DRPS. Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR) project plans to do the same work now. Purpose: Digital signal process (analog to digital converter driven

digital filter

and quantitative comparison)

logic process (two-out-of-four logic

2oo4) and data communication are some key components in DRPS design. It is important to test whether FPGA is able to realize these key techniques or not. Methods: First of all

the flash-based FPGA made by Actel Company is selected to design for digital signal process and logic process

and coded by Verilog Hardware Description Language (Verilog HDL

Verilog) under Libero SoC program. Then the Icarus Verilog (iVerilog) program is employed for simulation

and finally the signal waveform is watched by GtkWave program. Hardware test is performed by using FPGA development board together with some necessary chips. Results: Experimental results showed that the digital signal process and logic process were realized in the dedicated FPGA and performed well. Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) driven module was stable and executed as fast as the ADC chip could. Digital filter module made the ADC data much more stable. Quantitative comparison module got expected results accurately. The 2oo4 logic module gave the result immediately when the inputs had 2 or more “1”. It is of most importance that all of these modules worked simultaneously. Conclusion: It is practicable to use flash-based FPGA in DRPS of TMSR project technically due to its non-software common cause failure

fast speed

simplification and parallelism. Abstract