FPGA based Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC)

A way to measure time in picoseconds and high accuracy is developed on a FPGA. This flexible and generic design is very useful for a wide range of applications like PET scanners, SPAD camera's, time-of-flight applications, etc. In the past a state-of-the-art TDC is characterized and developed with respect to the static performance. Voltage and temperature variations will make the time measurement drift and therefore on-line calibration need to be done, as well as start-up calibrations, in order to keep the performance stable.

The TDC need to be developed in a new FPGA board and the calibration aspects need to be investigated and developed. In this way a total integrated TDC is achieved, which can be used immediately and is self-calibrating. FPGA based design will bring extra challenges on resources and real-time influences. A combination of research, design and implementation in order to keep ahead of technology. Work on the best TDC known, do you help us keep it that way?

Assignment

The TDC need to be developed in a new FPGA board and the calibration aspects need to be investigated and developed. In this way a total integrated TDC is achieved, which can be used immediately and is self-calibrating. FPGA based design will bring extra challenges on resources and real-time influences. A combination of research, design and implementation in order to keep ahead of technology. We work at the forefront of the best TDC known, do you help us keep it that way?

Requirements

In this project the student will work with FPGA Virtex-7 (28nm technology), Time-to-Digital Converters, Digital/Analog Calibration design, Real-Time development, Temperature Chamber and other test equipment.

Languages: VHDL, C, Unix shell script

Contact

prof.dr. Edoardo Charbon

Signal Processing Systems Group

Department of Microelectronics

Last modified: 2018-03-14