HIGH RESOLUTION TIME-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER AND METHOD THEREOF
First Claim
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1. A time-to-digital converter comprising:
- a plurality of parallel circuits for receiving a common first clock and for generating a plurality of delayed clocks, wherein the delayed clocks have different timings;
a plurality of sampling circuits for sampling said delayed clocks according to a second clock to generate a plurality of decisions, respectively; and
a decoder for receiving said decisions and for generating a digital output accordingly.
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Abstract
A time-to-digital converter (TDC) is disclosed, the TDC comprising: a plurality of parallel circuits for receiving a common first clock and for generating a plurality of delayed clocks; a plurality of sampling circuits for receiving and sampling said delayed clocks at an edge of a second clock to generate a plurality of decisions, respectively; and a decoder for receiving said decisions and for generating a digital output accordingly.
33 Citations
41 Claims
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1. A time-to-digital converter comprising:
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a plurality of parallel circuits for receiving a common first clock and for generating a plurality of delayed clocks, wherein the delayed clocks have different timings; a plurality of sampling circuits for sampling said delayed clocks according to a second clock to generate a plurality of decisions, respectively; and a decoder for receiving said decisions and for generating a digital output accordingly. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of time-to-digital conversion, the method comprising:
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receiving a common first clock and generating accordingly a plurality of delayed clocks using a plurality of parallel circuits; generating a plurality of decisions by sampling said delayed clocks at an edge of a second clock; and decoding said decisions into a digital output. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of time-to-digital conversion, the method comprising:
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receiving a common first clock; generating a first group of delayed clocks from the common first clock using a plurality of parallel circuits; generating a first group of decisions by sampling the first group of delayed clocks according to a second clock; decoding the first group of decisions into a first timing estimate signal; generating a second group of delayed clocks from the common first clock, wherein the delay time of the second group of delayed clocks and that of the first group of delayed clocks are different; generating a second group of decisions by sampling the second group of delayed clocks at an edge of a third clock; decoding the second group of decisions into a second timing estimate signal; and generating a final timing estimate signal according to the first timing estimate signal and the second timing estimate signal. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A digital clock generator comprising:
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a time-to-digital converter (TDC) module comprising a first TDC comprising; a plurality of parallel circuits for generating a first group of delayed clocks according to a first clock; a first group of sampling circuits to generate a first group of decisions according to a second clock and the first group of delayed clocks, and a first circuit for generating a first tentative timing estimate signal according to the first group of decisions; a loop filter for receiving the first timing estimate signal and for generating a frequency control signal; and a DCO (digitally controlled oscillator) for receiving the frequency control signal and for generating an output clock. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of performing timing detection, the method comprises:
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using a plurality of parallel circuits to generate a plurality of derived clocks from a common first clock; determining a plurality of relative timing relationships between said derived clocks and a second clock; and determining a timing difference between the first clock and the second clock based on said relative timing relationships. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method of time-to-digital conversion, the method comprising:
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receiving a first clock and generating accordingly a first group of delayed clocks using a first group of parallel circuits; generating a first group of decisions by sampling the first group of delayed clocks according to a second clock; decoding the first group of decisions into a first tentative timing estimate; receiving the second clock and generating accordingly a second group of delayed clocks using a second group of parallel circuits; generating a second group of decisions by sampling the second group of delayed clocks according to the first clock; and decoding the second group of decisions into a second tentative timing estimate; and generating a final timing estimate according to the first tentative timing estimate and the second timing estimate. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification