An integrated CMOS time interval measurement system with subnanosecond resolution for the WA-98 calorimeter

The time interval measurement system of the WA-98 calorimeter is presented. This system consists of a constant fraction discriminator (CFD), a variable delay circuit, a time-to-amplitude converter (TAC), and a Wilkinson analog-to-digital converter (ADC) all realized in a 1.2-μm N-well CMOS process. These circuits measured the time interval between a reference logic signal and a photomultiplier tube (PMT) signal that had amplitude variations of 100:1 and 10-ns rise and fall times. The system operated over the interval range from 2 ns to 200 ns with a resolution of ~±300 ps including all walk and jitter components. The variable delay circuit allowed the CFD output to be delayed by up to 1 μs with a jitter component of ~0.04% of the delay setting. These circuits operated with a 5-V power supply. Although this application was in nuclear physics instrumentation, these circuits could also be useful in other scientific measurements, medical imaging, automatic test equipment, ranging systems, and industrial electronics