Patent · US Active

Time to digital converter with successive approximation architecture

US9285778B1 · kind B1 · utility

9Cited by
1References
26Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 18, 2015
Grant dateMar 15, 2016
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 18, 2035

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03M1/468
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A time to digital converter with a successive approximation architecture (300) and a method thereof is provided. The time to digital converter (300) includes successive approximation analog to digital converter circuitry (310) configured for converting the differential voltage established in the digital to analog converter (305) of the successive approximation analog to digital converter circuitry (310) to a digital representation thereof, where the differential voltage corresponds to a measured time period representing a time difference between receipt of leading edges of two signals. Time to digital converter (300) may incorporate a current switching unit (340′) having a plurality of current switching circuits (303a-303n, 304a-304n) arranged in parallel to increase the precision of digital time output of time to digital converter (300). The plurality of current switching circuits (303a-303n, 304a-304n) can be selectively enabled to alter the sensitivity of the time to digital converter (300).

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.