4.3ps rms jitter time to amplitude converter in 350nm Si-Ge technology

Abstract

Nowadays, many applications require the measurement of a time interval: while a coarse timing information down to the nanoseconds range can be easily obtained with a counter, achieving a precision in the order of few picoseconds require more complex circuits, especially if high linearity and operating rates up to tens of Mcps are also necessary. In this paper, we show preliminary results on a new fully integrated time to amplitude converter designed in 350nm Si-Ge technology. The circuit is able to provide a timing precision as low as 4.3ps rms on a 12.5ns full scale range and a linearity better than 1% rms.