Title :
A CMOS time measurement system with analog memory for particle physics detectors
Author :
Gerds, E.J. ; Van der Spiegel, J. ; Williams, H.H. ; Van Berg, R.
Author_Institution :
Pennsylvania Univ., Philadelphia, PA, USA
Abstract :
A time-to-charge converter with an analog memory unit (TCC/AMU) has been designed and fabricated in HP´s 1.2 μm n-well process. This VLSI chip is intended for the Superconducting Super Collider straw tube detector electronics. The TCC/AMU measures the time interval between the system clock and an asynchronous input, and then gives a digital output representing the time measurement. This initial version of the chip has analog Level 1 and Level 2 storage locations for data sparsification. Two separate fabrication runs resulted in chips that can measure intervals from 8 to 24 ns with ~108 ps/LSB resolution. When digital logic is added to count the reference clock, time resolutions of ~108 ps could be obtained over time intervals of ~1 s
Keywords :
CMOS integrated circuits; analogue storage; nuclear electronics; particle detectors; time measurement; timing circuits; 8 to 24 ns; CMOS time measurement system; Superconducting Super Collider straw tube detector electronics; VLSI chip; analog memory; asynchronous input; data sparsification; digital logic; digital output; fabrication runs; n-well process; particle physics detectors; reference clock; system clock; time interval; time measurement; time-to-charge converter; Analog memory; Capacitors; Clocks; Detectors; Electrons; Particle tracking; Semiconductor device measurement; Time measurement; Very large scale integration; Wire;
Conference_Titel :
Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 1992., Conference Record of the 1992 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Orlando, FL
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-0884-0
DOI :
10.1109/NSSMIC.1992.301266
