New generic method for measuring the time of arrival of an electrical signal

In the field of measurement and more particularly for the detection of events, a high degree of precision in the timing is fundamental. This precision can be obtained by implementing TDC - Time to Digital Converter on computer chips. Different methods are now available to achieve picosecond precision, and now the challenge is to achieve picoseconds at a moderate cost.

A solution based on a VHDL code implemented on an FPGA, or software code in post-processing on a computer (or on embedded system) has been developed, showing that we can achieve a very high temporal resolution with a simple and inexpensive implementation.

PULSALYS IS SEARCHING FOR

PULSALYS is looking for industrial partners for the commercialization of the technology.

Reference: PICOTI [D02759]

Key words: TDC, TDL, Time of flight, LIDAR, Piconsecond,

TRL: 5

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Applications :	Target Markets :
TEP-Scan, Hadrontherapy, FLIM Depth sensing – LIDAR High Energy Physics Photon counting	TDC providers Manufacturer of Electronics/photonics devices Embedded systems developers
Competitive Advantages :	Intellectual Property :
Time resolution measured of the order of 1ps RMS Ease of implementation Cost reduction: Code on a single FPGA or code improvement of commercial TDC Short dead time between two measurements: a few ns Significant reduction in FPGA resource consumption Generic solution that can be adapted to the configuration of use	Working on a patent registration