The invention discloses a time-to-
digital converter based on a vernier double-
chain structure, and relates to the technical field of integrated circuits. The converter comprises a
signal holding circuit, a vernier double-chain rough measurement module, a data selector, a special time
amplifier module and a digital coding unit, the vernier double-chain rough measurement module is composed of a main
delay chain and a vernier
delay chain, and 10ps-level rough measurement is achieved by adjusting the width-to-length ratio of an MOS tube of a phase
inverter to control the
delay difference of a unit. The data selector gates a residual
time difference signal to the special time
amplifier module, and the special time
amplifier module is matched with a
transmission gate through an RC network to realize 11mV / ps high-
linearity time-
voltage conversion; the digital coding unit integrates the rough measurement result and the accurate measurement result, and finally the 3.0 ps
system resolution is achieved. A'rough measurement-fine measurement 'two-stage measurement architecture is adopted, a single-amplifier
time division multiplexing design is adopted, a measurement dead zone is effectively eliminated, the
chip area and
power consumption are greatly reduced, and the device is particularly suitable for high-precision time measurement application such as
laser radar and
quantum calculation.