一种改进式TAC的高精度时间间隔测量系统的实现

设计了一种基于改进式时间-幅度转换器(time-amplitude converter,TAC)的高精度时间间隔测量系统;该系统采用集成运放设计TAC中的电流可控的恒流源,并对TAC内部的积分控制部分加入宽带直流放大电路,来提高时间间隔测量的精确度;采用高精度的模数转换器采样TAC的输出,实现高精度时间间隔测量中的模拟到数字的转换;采用现场可编程逻辑门阵列(field programmable gate array,FPGA)完成系统软件设计,实现对TAC的控制;通过变换TAC的采样电阻的阻值,使恒流源输出不同的电流对电容进行充电,从而使TAC的输出电压满足高精度模数转换器(analog-digital converter,ADC)采集电压的要求;实验表明,在测量时间范围为1μs,800 ns,400 ns,200 ns时,该系统的时间间隔测量的最小时间精度为400 ps。

A 128×128 SPAD LiDAR sensor with column-parallel 25 ps resolution TA-ADCs

This paper presents a design of single photon avalanche diode(SPAD)light detection and ranging(LiDAR)sensor with 128×128 pixels and 128 column-parallel time-to-analog-merged-analog-to-digital converts(TA-ADCs).Unlike the conventional TAC-based SPAD LiDAR sensor,in which the TAC and ADC are separately implemented,we propose to merge the TAC and ADC by sharing their capacitors,thus avoiding the analog readout noise of TAC’s output buffer,improving the conversion rate,and reducing chip area.The reverse start-stop logic is employed to reduce the power of the TA-ADC.Fabricated in a 180 nm CMOS process,our prototype sensor exhibits a timing resolution of 25 ps,a DNL of+0.30/−0.77 LSB,an INL of+1.41/−2.20 LSB,and a total power consumption of 190 mW.A flash LiDAR system based on this sensor demonstrates the function of 2D/3D imaging with 128×128 resolution,25 kHz inter-frame rate,and sub-centimeter ranging precision.

用于单光子TOF测量的时间-幅度变换器

基于新型共源共栅电流源的积分方法,设计了一种用于单光子飞行时间(TOF)测量的时间-幅度变换器(TAC)。该方法有效简化了TAC电路结构,减小了TAC占用面积,显著提高了TOF的满量程范围(FSR)。采用0.18μm标准CMOS工艺设计。集成TAC的单光子探测器像素单元的填充因子可达到26.8%。后仿真结果表明,该TAC在120 ns的FSR内具有230 ps的定时分辨率,微分非线性(DNL)低于0.05 LSB,积分非线性(INL)低于1.1 LSB。蒙特卡洛仿真表明,512个TAC像素间的不均匀性低于0.5%。该TAC非常适用于高密度时间相关的单光子计数(TCSPC)探测器阵列。