A Time-To-Digital Converter with a Resolution of 2 ns

Abstract

A CAMAC (1M) single-channel time-to-digital converter has been designed for measuring time intervals with a time resolution of 2 ns in the range from 0 to ~131 μs. This range can be extended by connecting an additional external counter. This converter is of the counting-pulse type with a calibrated conversion scale. A recirculation generator based on a K500LM101 chip is used as a source of counting pulses. One time interval can be measured at once. Several time-to-digital converters can be combined into a multistop measuring system to increase the number of time intervals recorded by a single Start signal. The differential nonlinearity is 1%, and the integral nonlinearity in the above range is 0.001%. The relative instability of the conversion coefficient caused by supply-voltage variations within the range of–6 V ± 2.5% is 0.24%. The temperature drift of the conversion coefficient in the temperature range of 22.6–65.7°C is 0.07%/°C.