Dual channel time-to-digital converter module with 10 ps resolution and 320 ns full scale range

Abstract

A dual-channel time-to-digital converter (TDC) module designed to accurately measure time intervals with 10 ps resolution, about 21 ps root-mean-square (rms) precision and 125 fs rms differential nonlinearity, over a 320 ns full scale range and up to 4 Mconv/s per channel is presented. The module can also operate the two channels in parallel, as a single TDC converter, in order to improve timing performance to about 15.3 ps rms. A USB 2.0 interface provides the power supply and allows fast data transfer to a computer, where a dedicated software interface handles measurement data and plots. Because of the excellent timing performance, compact dimensions and low power consumption, the dual-channel TDC module is suitable for advanced multi-channel time measurements at the picosecond level.