10 ps resolution, 160 ns full scale range and less than 1.5% differential non-linearity time-to-digital converter module for high performance timing measurements
- Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano (Italy)
We present a compact high performance time-to-digital converter (TDC) module that provides 10 ps timing resolution, 160 ns dynamic range and a differential non-linearity better than 1.5% LSB{sub rms}. The TDC can be operated either as a general-purpose time-interval measurement device, when receiving external START and STOP pulses, or in photon-timing mode, when employing the on-chip SPAD (single photon avalanche diode) detector for detecting photons and time-tagging them. The instrument precision is 15 ps{sub rms} (i.e., 36 ps{sub FWHM}) and in photon timing mode it is still better than 70 ps{sub FWHM}. The USB link to the remote PC allows the easy setting of measurement parameters, the fast download of acquired data, and their visualization and storing via an user-friendly software interface. The module proves to be the best candidate for a wide variety of applications such as: fluorescence lifetime imaging, time-of-flight ranging measurements, time-resolved positron emission tomography, single-molecule spectroscopy, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, diffuse optical tomography, optical time-domain reflectometry, quantum optics, etc.
- OSTI ID:
- 22093670
- Journal Information:
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 83, Issue 7; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
A time digitizer CMOS gate-array with a 250 ps time resolution
An integrated CMOS 0.15 ns digital timing generator for TDC`s and clock distribution systems
Related Subjects
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCURACY
CONVERSION
CORRELATIONS
FLUORESCENCE
INTERFACES
LIFETIME
PERFORMANCE
PHOTONS
PORTABLE EQUIPMENT
POSITRON COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
PULSES
SPECTROSCOPY
TIME MEASUREMENT
TIME RESOLUTION
TIME-OF-FLIGHT METHOD