Algorithmic time-to-digital converter

Author

Keranen, Pekka ; Kostamovaara, J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

fYear

2013

fDate

11-12 Nov. 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A novel time-to-digital converter is proposed. The TDC is based on a ring oscillator, and operates by switching the oscillation frequency in a cyclic manner. The operating principle resembles a cyclic/algorithmic ADC, where the quantization error is amplified and quantized recursively. Due to the recursive operation, the TDC can achieve very high resolution. Resolution is mainly limited by nonlinearities and the phase noise of the ring oscillator. Simulations on a standard 0.35μm CMOS process show that a maximum error due to process variations and mismatch is about ±2ps when the TDC is properly calibrated. Noise induced measurement error was simulated to have a standard deviation of 0.3ps.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; calibration; electric noise measurement; integrated circuit measurement; integrated circuit noise; measurement errors; oscillators; phase noise; time-digital conversion; TDC; algorithmic time-to-digital converter; calibration; cyclic-algorithmic ADC; noise induced measurement error; phase noise; quantization error amplification; recursive quantization; ring oscillator; size 0.35 mum; standard CMOS process; switching oscillation frequency; time 0.3 ps; Clocks; Radiation detectors; Ring oscillators; Switches; Time-frequency analysis;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

NORCHIP, 2013

Conference_Location

Vilnius

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NORCHIP.2013.6702022

Filename

6702022