Time-to-Digital Converter for Impluse Radio Pulse Width Modulation

Abstract

This paper proposes a high-resolution time-to-digital converter (TDC) that is targeted for accurately reconstructing the analog information encoded within the pulse width of signals in an Impulse Radio Pulse Width Modulation (IR-PWM) wireless data acquisition system. The proposed Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) enhances resolution by employing a buffer instead of a single inverter. The TDC occupied an area of 15.3 μm × 450 μm and achieved a timing resolution of 3.17 ps with 8-bit output dynamic range. The TDC operates at a supply voltage of 1 V, with a power consumption of 970 μW. Linearity performance is characterized by a differential nonlinearity (DNL) within ±0.8 least significant bits (LSB).