Implementation of a High-Precision and Wide-Range Time-to-Digital Converter With Three-Level Conversion Scheme

This brief presents a time-to-digital converter (TDC) with a three-level conversion scheme based on a dual delay-locked loop (DLL) structure. The linear-feedback-shift-register counter is implemented for measurement range extension, and a differential delay cell is adopted for time resolution improvement. Furthermore, the DLL is applied to improve the stability of the multiphase clock frequency. The test chip is designed and fabricated in a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company 0.35-μm CMOS process. With an input reference clock of 40 MHz, the total 15-bit three-level TDC can realize a 3-μs maximum range and a 476-ps resolution. The differential nonlinearity is less than ±0.65 LSB, and the integral nonlinearity is within -1.35 LSB to +1.4 LSB.