[time-nuts] On low-voltage TAC/TDCs for a GPSDO

J.D. Bakker jdb at lartmaker.nl
Mon Aug 16 01:19:00 UTC 2010


At 23:49 +1200 14-08-2010, Bruce Griffiths wrote:
>J.D. Bakker wrote:
>>At 19:01 +1200 14-08-2010, Bruce Griffiths wrote:
>>>J.D. Bakker wrote:
>However the ultimate test (other than breadboarding it) is to 
>actually simulate the sampling process and look at the deviation of 
>the sampled voltages from linearity.

That's not a bad idea (the recent "Simulation" thread 
notwithstanding), I'll see if I can find the time to cobble something 
together.

Suggested procedure:
- Assume perfect ADC buffers (not unrealistic, some of the MCP6xxx 
parts have enough GBW and slew rate), and a 2V ADC reference.
- Independent variables:
   * Number of ADC bits (8...12)
   * ADC input noise (model as AWGN, vary over 0...10LSB)
   * ADC aperture jitter (AWGN, 0...2ns)
   * ADC sample rate (1 or 2 MSPS)
   * Ramp rate (0.1/0.2/0.5/1V/us, to be varied by changing C1 and only C1)
   * For Circuit 3: Difference between ramp rates (0...10%, again through C1)
- Have LTSpice generate a simulated ramp with enough time resolution 
(say 100ps), do linear interpolation if needed.
- For each combination of independent variables:
   * Generate simulated ramp(s)
   * Run a realistic number of -100ns/0ns/+100ns calibrations (call it 100 runs)
   * Sweep the simulated offset from -500ns to 500ns in 1ns steps
   * For each simulated offset, do a few thousand measurement runs
   * Collect statistics
- Plot RMS and 90%-limits for the recorded data.

That should keep all eight cores busy for a day or so. Does that 
sound like a workable plan? If I feel up to it, I'll see if I can add 
the simple RC-filter to the mix, although I'm less confident about 
doing proper a priori weighed error curve fitting on that than on the 
simple linear ramps.

(I'd like to look at slower ramps/ADCs because the more I think about 
it the more I prefer the ADuC7024, with +/-1LSB INL @1MSPS over the 
+/-6LSB @2MSPS of the ATXMega. An added bonus of the ADuC is that it 
has a small on-chip PLA, which might allow me to do without a CPLD).

>In the case of the 3 diode TAC devised by Kasper Pedersen some 
>compensation of diode capacitance modulation occurs if the diodes 
>are matched.

Hadn't seen that one yet. Looks interesting, but losing another two 
diode drops on top of the current source's compliance range may be a 
bit too tight for 3.3V operation.

>>I've tried it in the simulator and on the bench, and it works quite well.
>
>I'll check again, but thats not consistent with what I found with a 
>simulated 1mA current source.

As I mentioned a few messages ago the ramp becomes much more linear 
(due to swamping of parasitics) when the current and the capacitor 
are increased tenfold. Tried it again on the bench with the values as 
in the attached sim file (SMD parts dead bug on a ground plane, with 
a FDV301N in series with a 10R resistor shorting the capacitor, and a 
resistor to set the current), and as far as I can eyeball it on my 
100MHz scope it works as advertised. Not that a scope check is the 
last word in linearity, but at least there are no gross discrepancies 
with the simulator's results. Having said that, I'm open for other 
suggestions wrt the current source.

JD "Monte Carlo" B.
-- 
LART. 250 MIPS under one Watt. Free hardware design files.
http://www.lartmaker.nl/
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