High-precision low-jitter delay pulse generator

Abstract

The invention discloses a high-precision low-jitter delay pulse generator which comprises the following steps: a time digital controller (TDC) module is used for measuring a time interval between an external trigger signal and a clock signal and is used for compensating jitter of pulse output; a jitter compensation module which processes time information measured by the TDC and delay information set by a user to obtain final delay information and compensates the final delay information to an output pulse; a coarse delay module which is used for performing coarse delay on the trigger signal and outputting the delayed signal to the fine delay chip; a serial port communication module which is used for sending delay information set by a user to an upper computer; and a Nios II soft core processor module which is used for processing the set information and sending the set information to the corresponding module. According to the invention, the problems of low precision of a counter and small delay range of a numerical control delay chip are solved by using a coarse-fine combined delay method, and the jitter of an output pulse is greatly reduced by using a TDC technology. Therefore, the whole system is high in integration degree, wherein the dtelay precision reaches 22 ps, and the pulse output jitter is 500 ps.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a timing synchronization device. In particular, a sub-nanosecond time-delayed pulse generator for time-of-flight mass spectrometers. Background technique [0002] The pulse delay generator is a timing control instrument, which can use a certain trigger signal as the zero point of time, and output a pulse signal with adjustable delay relative to the zero point of time, which is used to drive the work of other instruments, so as to realize the control of multiple The timing control of the instrument, the pulse delay generator plays a key role in high-speed framing cameras, radar systems, time-of-flight mass spectrometers and other equipment. The methods for realizing pulse delay include counter method and numerical control delay line method. [0003] The principle of the counter delay method is to count the stable clock signal, and control the delay time by controlling the number of counts. This method is relatively easy to obt...

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Problems solved by technology

[0003] The principle of counter method delay is to count the stable clock signal, and control the delay time by controlling the number of counts. This method is relatively easy to obtain a large dynamic range Delay, but the control of the sampling clock frequency, the delay resolution will not be very high, and the jitter of the output pulse is also affected by the sampling clock, resulting in the same size of the pulse output jitter as the delay resolution, and it is impossible to obtain a lower pulse output Jitter; the numerical control delay line method uses analog circuit technology to achieve precise control of pulse delay. This method converts the set delay information into a voltage value through D / A, and triggers the ramp circuit when the external trigger signal arrives. The comparator compares the voltage value of D / A with the voltage value of the ramp circuit, and outputs a delayed pulse when the two are equal

This method can obtain very high delay resolution, but the delay dynamic range is very limited

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