[time-nuts] Questions about TAC frontend, and some measurements

Alan Melia alan.melia at btinternet.com
Sat Dec 22 23:28:01 UTC 2012


Hi Fabio taking BJTs deep into saturation stores a lot of charge in the 
collector base capacitance. this must br discharged before a state change 
can occur.  LSTTL gets round this and gets the speed at lower currents by 
clamping the collector to only just in saturation with a schottky diode 
between base and collector. Higher speeds are obtained with a long-tail pair 
like configuration, which switches (diverts) the current flow between left 
and right transistors for the two logic states. The current and power 
dissipation is high but speeds 10 times saturated logic are obtainable. see 
ECL, MECL, or PECL logic family schematics.

Alan
G3NYK


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fabio Eboli" <FabioEb at quipo.it>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 
<time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2012 11:00 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Questions about TAC frontend, and some measurements


> Hello, Bruce
>
>> Using saturated transistors as switches in the current source and
>> elsewhere isn't conducive to fast switching.
>> The traditional arrangement using current mode switches is much
>> faster and more predictable.
>
> This is something I'd like to understand better.
>
> I'm referring to this schematic here:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/14336723@N08/8293076065/
> Q2 and Q5 are saturating toward the end of the
> ramp pulse, when the ramp capacitor C1 starts
> to go up.
> I was prepared to see the circuit I designed
> fail miserably on switch time, but it seem
> to be working, as far as I could see on the DSO.
> As far I can understand, the fact that Q2 and Q6
> don't saturate, saves the circuit, since
> at the end of the ramp, when Q1 and Q5 are
> into saturation, Q6 is able to steer the
> current to ground, and reverse bias BE (and CB)
> of Q5. Is this correct, or I was only
> lucky with the specific parts I used?
>
>> Buffering the ramp with an opamp requires that the opamp settling
>> time be known so that the opamp has fully settled before a sample is
>> taken. With a charge redistribution ADC that has a sampling switch
>> connected to a capacitor array a buffer isnt usually necessary.
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>
> I was planning to read the voltage with a microcontroller's ADC.
> I will set a fixed delay from the PPS rising edge and start
> sampling there. To do so I need that the voltage on integrating
> capacitor to stay reasonably stable during the delay.
>
> Fabio
>
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