High-resolution and wide-dynamic range time-to-digital converter with a multi-phase cyclic Vernier delay line

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a time-to-digital converter (TDC) that uses a multi-phase cyclic Vernier delay line (VDL) to achieve the high-resolution and wide-dynamic range. Its control voltages are provided by two phase-locked loops (PLLs) to compensate for the process and ambient variations. The two PLLs share a single reference clock and have different frequency-division ratios. It also improves the resolution of the TDC. A prototype chip, designed and fabricated in 0.18μm CMOS technology with an active area of 0.40mm2, achieves a 3.4ps of resolution and an input range of 100ns at 2.5M samples/s, while consuming 32mW from a 1.8V supply.