We present the design, operation and test results of a time counter that has an equivalent resolution of 2.9 ps, a measurement uncertainty at the level of 6 ps, and a measurement range of 10 s. The time counter has been implemented in a general-purpose reprogrammable device Spartan-6 (Xilinx). To obtain both high precision and wide measurement range the counting of periods of a reference clock is combined with a two-stage interpolation within a single period of the clock signal. The interpolation involves a four-phase clock in the first interpolation stage (FIS) and an equivalent coding line (ECL) in the second interpolation stage (SIS). The ECL is created as a compound of independent discrete time coding lines (TCL). The number of TCLs used to create the virtual ECL has an effect on its resolution. We tested ECLs made from up to 16 TCLs, but the idea may be extended to a larger number of lines. In the presented time counter the coarse resolution of the counting method equal to 2 ns (period of the 500 MHz reference clock) is firstly improved fourfold in the FIS and next even more than 400 times in the SIS. The proposed solution allows us to overcome the technological limitation in achievable resolution and improve the precision of conversion of integrated interpolators based on tapped delay lines.
Articles you may be interested inJitter characteristic of series magnetic pulse compressor employed in ns trigger generator Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 053302 (2014); 10.1063/1.4874003Sine gating detector with simple filtering for low-noise infra-red single photon detection at room temperatureThe generator of precise delay over the range of 0-650 s is described. The delay is selected with 10 ps resolution and its jitter is below 8 ps ͑rms͒ for delays up to 10 s. The generator was designed as a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor programmable logic device driven by a signal generator. Three output pulses are generated: START, STOP, and GATE, all with the amplitude of 2.3 V and the switching times below 500 ps.
The paper describes two time-interval generators based on the phase shifting method. The first one utilizes the digital clock manager units integrated in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device and has jitter below 65 ps (rms) over the range of 4 ns-50 ms, while the second one utilizes a separate direct digital synthesizer and has jitter below 15 ps (rms) over the range of 10.2 ns-50 ms. The phase shifting method can be used to design new low-cost and high-precision time-interval generators using the popular FPGA technology.
This paper presents the design, implementation, and test results of a multichannel time interval and frequency counter developed as a desktop instrument. The counter contains four main functional modules for (1) performing precise measurements, (2) controlling and fast data processing, (3) low-noise power suppling, and (4) supplying a stable reference clock (optional rubidium standard). A fundamental for the counter, the time interval measurement is based on time stamping combined with a period counting and in-period two-stage time interpolation that allows us to achieve wide measurement range (above 1 h), high precision (even better than 4.5 ps), and high measurement speed (up to 91.2 × 10 timestamps/s). The frequency is measured up to 3.0 GHz with the use of the reciprocal method. Wide functionality of the counter includes also the evaluation of frequency stability of clocks and oscillators (Allan deviation) and phase variation (time interval error, maximum time interval error, time deviation). The 8-channel measurement module is based on a field programmable gate array device, while the control unit involves a microcontroller with a high performance ARM-Cortex core. An efficient and user-friendly control of the counter is provided either locally, through the built-in keypad or/and color touch panel, or remotely, with the aid of USB, Ethernet, RS232C, or RS485 interfaces.
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