[time-nuts] Multiple Time Interval Counters to measure Transients?

[Marek Peca]

Hello,

On Sat, 8 Sep 2012, Florian Teply wrote:
> (..) But then I'll have to throw a few hundred Time Interval Counters
> at the problem in order to get the information on the duration of the
> transients.  So in general, amplitude  information comes from the
> comparator trigger levels, time information from the TICs.
>
> What I expect from the DUTs is transients in the range between 1 and
> maybe 50 nanoseconds duration, but on some circuits they may be a lot
> quicker as the bipolars are wicked fast (about 3-5 ps gate delay in
> ECL inverters).
>
> What do you guys think, would a truckload of TICs do the job? Maybe not
> on the Bipolars, but at the plain CMOS this should do.


It depends on how much precise you need the TICs (TDCs) to be. If it may 
be around +-100ps..1ns, the solution is simple enough and some hundreds of 
channels are feasible.

If you need units of ps, the challenge is big, IMHO. Currently, we are 
testing our Time-to-Digit Converter within single FPGA, out last design 
exhibited 7ps RMS of accuracy. In case you were interested, I expect 
finishing of demo board during October. It would be more FPGA-resources 
consuming, though.

Best regards,
Marek