High resolution flash time-to-digital converter with sub-picosecond measurement capabilities

Author

Minas, Nikolaos ; Kinniment, David ; Russell, Gordon ; Yakovlev, Alex

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. Electron. & Comput. Eng., Newcastle Univ., Newcastle upon Tyne

fYear

2008

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

The paper presents a flash TDC implemented in a UMC 0.13 um technology node. The maximum resolution of 0.6 ps and a dynamic range of plusmn17 ps makes it ideal for measuring set-up and hold time violations and quantifying clock jitter. The method proposed has the effect of reducing the errors introduced by noise and process variations by a factor of two over present techniques. A novel method for overcoming the effects of process variability by counting the number of high outputs is also presented.

Keywords

analogue-digital conversion; time measurement; timing jitter; UMC technology; clock jitter; flash time to digital converter; hold time violations; process variability; set-up violations; size 0.13 mum; sub picosecond measurement; time 0.6 ps; Circuit noise; Delay lines; Dynamic range; Extraterrestrial measurements; Flip-flops; Integrated circuit measurements; Probability; Signal resolution; Time measurement; Timing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System-on-Chip, 2008. SOC 2008. International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Tampere

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2541-9

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2542-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISSOC.2008.4694882

Filename

4694882