A CMOS multi-channel IC for pulse timing measurements with 1 mV sensitivity

This CMOS data acquisition channel measures the leading-edge timing of pulses relative to a 62.5 MHz system clock, where the input pulses have peak amplitudes in the range of 1 to 10 mV. Such "time-of-occurrence" measurements are required in applications such as laser range-finding, electronics testing, and particle-physics experiments. In this case, the channel is designed for use in a particle-physics instrumentation application requiring a large number (>100,000) of channels with a timing measurement error of less than 0.75 ns r.m.s. The channel consists of a wideband amplifier, a tail-cancellation filter, a timing discriminator, and a time digitizer. For reasons of cost, size, and power dissipation, it is desirable to integrate multiple channels in a single integrated circuit. This implies that the individual subcircuits comprising each channel must be designed so as to generate minimal amounts of switching noise.