Programmable time amplifier with high precision and high dynamic range

Abstract

The invention discloses a programmable time amplifier circuit with high precision and a high dynamic range. The programmable time amplifier circuit comprises a phase detection circuit, a time preprocessing circuit, a rail-to-rail voltage comparator, a 3-8 decoder and a current biasing circuit. The phase detection circuit extracts a time interval of a step input signal and generates a pulse signal DN; the time preprocessing circuit controls the current source to charge and discharge the capacitor according to the pulse signal DN to generate two groups of ramp signals; the rail-to-rail voltage comparator realizes comparison in a full voltage range according to the two groups of input ramp signals; the 3-8 decoder provides a control signal for a capacitance control switch of the time preprocessing circuit; and the current bias circuit provides reference current bias for the time preprocessing circuit and the rail-to-rail voltage comparator. According to the invention, the input time interval can be accurately amplified, the time interval amplification of a high input range can be satisfied, the amplification factor programmable function can be realized, and the resolution and quantization input range of the assembly line TDC can be effectively improved.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the design field of time-to-digital converter integrated circuits, in particular to a time amplifier circuit in a pipelined high-resolution time-to-digital converter. Background technique [0002] With the increasing demands of social science and technology, fields such as flight measurement (TOF) and radar have ushered in rapid development, and have higher performance requirements for time measurement. A time-to-digital converter (Time-To-Digital Converter, TDC), as a time interval quantization circuit, can convert a time interval signal into a binary digital signal. According to the characteristics of multi-level quantization, the pipeline TDC has the advantages of high quantization accuracy and fast quantization speed. The time amplifier is the most important module in the pipeline TDC, and its performance index determines the resolution and measurement range of the pipeline TDC. The programmable function of increasing the...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Although the traditional SR-latch-based amplifier has a good time interval amplification capability with a high input range, it cannot be programmed and its application range is limited.

Therefore, its application is often limited by the performance factors of the time amplifier.

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