Clockless Time-to-Digital Converter for High-Resolution Pulse Interval Sensing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current time-to-digital converters (TDCs) face limitations in achieving high resolution and precision due to noise introduced by reference clocks and the speed of clocking devices, making them inadequate for applications requiring high-resolution time interval measurements.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of clockless continuous-time chaos-based time-to-digital conversion methods, which use iterative chaotic maps to convert continuous pulse signals into digital representations without relying on clocking signals, allowing for the detection and representation of time intervals between events as binary signals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If reference clocks are used in TDC, then the system can provide discrete measurement resolution, but noise is introduced and measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the reference clock component from the TDC system entirely. By extracting the harmful noise source (reference clock) while preserving the measurement function through alternative means (chaos-based time-to-digital conversion), the system achieves high precision without the detrimental effects of clock noise and quantization errors.
2Measurement precision
If clocking devices are used to increase measurement speed, then the system can process events faster, but the resolution is limited by the clock speed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical clocking system with a chaos-based electronic system. Instead of using periodic clock signals that impose discrete resolution limits, the invention uses continuous chaotic dynamics to achieve both high speed processing and fine time resolution, effectively substituting a quantized mechanical timing mechanism with a continuous nonlinear electronic process.
3Measurement precision
If iterative chaotic map operations are applied to amplify small pulse width differences, then measurement resolution is enhanced, but the computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic iteration of chaotic map operations to achieve amplification of small time differences. By repeatedly applying the chaotic transformation, the system magnifies minute variations in pulse widths into measurable differences, using the inherent sensitivity of chaotic systems to initial conditions as a mechanism for high-resolution measurement despite the iterative computational process.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies are provided for time-to-digital conversion without reliance on a clocking signal. The technologies include a clockless TDC apparatus that can map continuous pulse-widths to binary bits represented via an iterative chaotic map (e.g., tent map, Bernoulli shift map, or similar). The clockless TDC apparatus can convert separated pulses to a single asynchronous digital pulse that turns on when a sensor detects a first pulse and turns off when the sensor detects a second pulse. The asynchronous digital pulse can be iteratively stretched and folded in time according to the chaotic map. The clockless TDC can generate a binary sequence that represents symbolic dynamics of the chaotic map. The process can be implemented by using an iterative time delay component until a precision of the binary output is either satisfied or overwhelmed by noise or other structural fluctuations of the TDC apparatus.