Design of a TDC chip based on 0.18 μm SMIC technology

BackgroundThe measurement of time-of-flight is one of the indispensable experimental contents in contemporary high-energy physics experiments and plays a vital role in exploring the essence of particle physics.PurposeThis study aims to design a time to digital convertor (TDC) chip that meets the high-resolution time measurement requirements of time-of-flight detectors for high-speed flying particles in high-energy physics experiments.MethodsFirst of all, a differential structure TDC was proposed and the main measurement part was realized by differential delay loop composed of time measurement core module, time measurement data transmission module, delay loop calibration module and clock generation module. Based on this structure, three parts of delay loop module, thermometer code generation module, and coarse count and fine count generation module were integrated into the core module of time measurement, and the 0.18 μm SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation) process was adopted to achieve the TDC chip design.Results & ConclusionsThe designed TDC chip has a layout area of 1.35 mm×1.35 mm, a resolution of 17 ps, an accuracy of 8.5 ps (Root Mean Square, RMS), and a dynamic range of 0~210 μs. It can meet the current requirements for high-precision time measurement in high-energy physics.