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Time interval generator with 8 ps resolution and wide range for large TDC array characterization

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Abstract

Accurate generation of picosecond-resolution wide–range time intervals gives rise to a new time-efficient method for the characterization of large arrays of time-to-digital converters involved in time resolved imaging. This paper presents the design and measurement of a time interval generator based on FPGA technology. Although it can be employed in different automatic test setups, it has been designed to characterize an array of time-to-digital converters. It can work as periodic pulse/frequency generator but also as a digital-to-time converter. The accuracy of periodic pulse generator is around 20 ps RMS jitter for a pulse width ranging from 600 ps to 33 µs. The incremental time resolution is 8 ps and the repetition rate is up to 2 MHz. The accuracy of the digital-to-time converter is less than 0.8LSB DNL and 2LSB INL, whilst the time resolution is 27 ps. Full characterization of the module is reported including a comparison with state-of-the-art instruments in this field. The measurement results of the time-to-digital converter array driven by the designed digital-to-time converter module are presented as well. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated by comparing it with the statistical code density test.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been funded by Office of Naval Research (USA) grant No. N000141410355, the Spanish Government through projects TEC2012-38921- C02 MINECO (European Region Development Fund, ERDF/FEDER), IPT-2011-1625-430000 MINECO, IPC- 20111009 CDTI (ERDF/FEDER) and Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo (CEICE) TIC 2012-2338.

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  1. Institute of Microelectronics of Seville (IMSE-CNM), CSIC-University of Seville, Seville, Spain

    Ion Vornicu, Ricardo Carmona-Galán & Ángel Rodríguez-Vázquez

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  1. Ion Vornicu
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  2. Ricardo Carmona-Galán
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  3. Ángel Rodríguez-Vázquez
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Correspondence to Ion Vornicu.

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Vornicu, I., Carmona-Galán, R. & Rodríguez-Vázquez, Á. Time interval generator with 8 ps resolution and wide range for large TDC array characterization. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 87, 181–189 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-015-0641-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-015-0641-9

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