Measuring time intervals with picosecond resolution is found in many applications, LIDAR being certainly the best known one. But others like tomography, communication, spectroscopy or magnetrostrictive position sensing also go for picoseconds. The Time-to-Digital Converters (abbreviated to TDC) from ScioSense offer the ideal platform for these systems.
The all-digital integrated circuits are based on buffer delay times and can be manufactured using standard CMOS process technologies. Compensation methods for temperature and voltage variation guarantee high stability and repeatability. In comparison to analog measurement methods, the main advantages of digital TDCs are high measurement rates, excellent pulse-pair resolution, and low power dissipation.
ScioSense TDC products offer resolution as high as 10ps for a single shot, and some devices can achieve sampling rates as high as 35 Msamples/channel.
Offering multiple channel outputs and multi-hit measurement capability down to 5 ns, these TDCs are ideal for LIDAR range-finding and medical imaging applications.
Channels
1 Start, 2 Stop, REFCLK
4 Stop, REFCLK
2 Stop, REFCLK
4 Stop, REFCLK
1 Start, 8 Stop, REFCLK
Inputs
LVDS, CMOS
LVDS, CMOS
LVDS, CMOS
CMOS
LCPECL, LVTTL
Interface
Quad SPI
LVDS, SPI
LVDS, SPI
SPI
28b parallel
Resolution [ps]
25
10, 20
10, 20
20
10, 81
Pulse-to-pulse [ns]
2.5
5
5
5
6
Sample rate [Hz]
50 M / chip
35 M / channel
35 M / channel
1.5 M / chip
40 M / chip
Package
QFN48
QFN48
QFN48
QFN32
TQFP100
As a specialist in environmental and flow sensor technology, ScioSense enables companies to use the planet’s resources more sustainably, helping to create a healthier future for all.
