A 1.9 ps-rms Precision Time-to-Amplitude Converter With 782 fs LSB and 0.79%-rms DNL

Measuring a time interval in the nanoseconds range has opened way to 3-D imaging, where additional information as distance of objects light detection and ranging (LiDAR) or lifetime decay fluorescence-lifetime imaging (FLIM) is added spatial coordinates. One key elements these systems measurement circuit, which encodes into digital words. Nowadays, most demanding applications, especially biological field, require time-conversion circuits with challenging combination performance, including sub-ps resolution, ps precision, several ns range, linearity better than few percent bin width (especially when complex data caused by multiple factors have be retrieved), operating rates order tens Mcps. In this article, we present time-to-amplitude converter (TAC) implemented SiGe 350 nm process featuring resolution 782 fs, minimum timing jitter low 1.9 ps-rms, DNL down 0.79% LSB-rms, conversion rate high 12.3 With an area occupation 0.2 mm2 [without PADs digital-to-analog (DAC)], FSR up 100 ns, power dissipation 70 mW, developed circuit suitable core element densely integrated, faster high-performance system.