Low power bipolar 360 degrees time to digital converter

摘要

A delay line operates to propagate a plurality of delay stages comprising a first delay element and a second delay element. A generator coupled to the delay line is configured to provide the start edge to the plurality of delay stages of the delay line as a function of a digital control oscillator (DCO) counter value generated by a DCO counter. A DCO calculation component is configured to facilitate a determination of propagation counts of the delay line as a function of DCO periods of a DCO.

主权项

1. A time to digital converter comprising:
a delay line comprising a plurality of delay stages that include a first delay chain and a second delay chain to generate a fine time measurement of a digital oscillator of a phase locked loop; a coarse time calculation component configured to generate a coarse time measurement based on equidistant periods and non-equidistant periods of the digital oscillator of the phase locked loop, wherein the fine time measurement and the coarse time measurement form a phase difference measurement of the phase locked loop that is communicated to the digital oscillator; and an edge selector configured to compare a reference signal of a reference clock and a divider signal of a divider clock and generate a start signal and a stop signal to a phase generator based thereon, and further configured to generate a sign value and provide the sign value to the coarse time calculation component, wherein the sign value is generated based on an order of a receiving edge of the reference signal and the divider signal, respectively.