Mike, That was a nice set of homework reading you provided for us. People might have missed it.
Cheers, Magnus
I have a few Rubidiums and OCXOs I'd like to get running for a month or so to stabilize. During this time, I'd like to monitor the performance to discover any bad units and see which are the best ones. For example, TVB shows a 100:1 variation in ADEV in FE-405B Rubidiums. The section is titled "Variation in FE-405B" in http://leapsecond.com/pages/fe405/ Clearly, it would be futile to try to use a bad unit in setting up a gpsdo. I need some means of measuring the performance of these units while they are running. A dozen HP5370's would be out of the question. I did some research to find the different methods available and decide which has the lowest per-channel cost and best performance. Here are some of the references I found. I discarded most of the poor ones and tried to keep only the ones that talk about measurements in the picosecond or femtosecond range. I did not include DMTD since the concept is so simple. The Reviews help to get oriented, but sometimes it takes reading the papers and the patents to see the timing diagrams and understand what the author is trying to do. There are many different variations on the FPGA approach. I would be concerned about the development time, the large DNL, and the problems with crosstalk on multi-channel units. The TI THS788 looks good on paper, but it is single-source, not well stocked, and there is lttle information on crosstalk between channels. It is also quite expensive per channel. There are no application notes and little or no information on usage on the web. The Thesis generally have excellent reviews worth reading. Articles Simple PICTIC 250ps time interval counter http://www.ko4bb.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=precision_timing:pictic Griffiths Time to Digital converters http://www.ko4bb.com/~bruce/TDC.html [time-nuts] Experience with THS788 from TI?- Attila Kinali's post on TDC methods https://www.febo.com/pipermail/time-nuts/2012-March/065337.html Reviews Review of methods for time interval measurements with picosecond resolution http://ztc.wel.wat.edu.pl/met4_1_004.pdf Low resource FPGA-based 32 Channel Time to Digital Converter - Excellent review of TDC techniques and measurement verification http://arxiv.org/vc/arxiv/papers/1206/1206.0679v3.pdf Design, construction and tests of a high resolution, high dynamic range Time to Digital Converter - Excellent review of TDC methods and test techniques http://inspirehep.net/record/1313667/files/getfile.pdf Review Of Sub-Nanosecond Time-Interval Measurements http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/getdoc/slac-pub-1331.pdf Chapter 1 Time Interval Measurement Literature Review http://www.rrsg.ee.uct.ac.za/members/jon/activities/timcs.pdf Time intervals measurements and generation methods review http://www.ohwr.org/attachments/128/Time_Interval_Measurements_Techniques.pdf Papers A Cyclic CMOS Time-to-Digital Converter With Deep Sub-nanosecond Resolution http://ntur.lib.ntu.edu.tw/bitstream/246246/2007041910021548/1/00777354.pdf A 96-Channel FPGA-based Time-to-Digital Converter http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0502062.pdf Complete and Compact 32-Channel System for Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting Measurements http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/4563994/6588410/06617673.pdf?arnumber=6617673 Design and Development of GPS Receiver for PNSS-1 http://www.suparco.gov.pk/pages/presentations-pdf/day-1/session-2/12C-II/1.pdf A Novel Ultra-fast High Resolution Time-domain EMI Measurement System based on Field Programmable Gate Arrays https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1163324/1163324.pdf High Precision Frequency Measurement System Based on Different Frequency Phase Processing (in Chinese) http://xbzrb.tjujournals.com/oa/pdfdow.aspx?Type=pdf&FileName=11acd53a-876d-4ab0-8906-572aa3836215.pdf A 51-dB SNDR DCO-Based TDC Using Two-Stage Second-Order Noise Shaping http://www28.cs.kobe-u.ac.jp/pdf/1205_konishi_iscas.pdf Integrated High-Resolution Multi-Channel Time-to-Digital Converters (TDCs) for PET Imaging - Discusses 100 fs Gated-ring-oscillator (GRO) http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/12913.pdf A 26 ps RMS time-to-digital converter core for Spartan-6 FPGAs http://arxiv.org/pdf/1303.6840v1.pdf A High-Resolution Flash Time-to-Digital Converter Taking Into Account Process Variability http://conferences.computer.org/async2007/PRS/15-minas-async07.pdf Principles and Instrumentation in Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry http://www.wiley.com/legacy/wileychi/ms/articles/1519_a.pdf TEMPERATURE SENSING CRYSTAL HTS-206 - maybe more stable than thermistor http://www.abcelectronique.fr/composants/telechargement_datasheet.php?id=385911&part-number=HTS-206 A novel method of measurement of time and amplitude of analog signals based solely on FPGA units http://koza.if.uj.edu.pl/pet-symposium-2013/talks/17.pdf A 16 channel high resolution (<11 ps RMS) Time-to-Digital Converter in a Field Programmable Gate Array http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-0221/7/02/C02004/pdf/1748-0221_7_02_C02004.pdf A 128-channel Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) inside a Virtex-5 FPGA on the GANDALF module http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-0221/7/03/C03008/pdf/1748-0221_7_03_C03008.pdf FPGA Based Data Digitisation with Commercial Elements http://indico.scc.kit.edu/indico/getFile.py/access?contribId=4&sessionId=4&resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=21 Time-to-Digital Converter Architecture with Residue Arithmetic and its FPGA Implementation http://www.el.gunma-u.ac.jp/~kobaweb/news/pdf/2014/2014-11li_congbing2.pdf An FPGA-Integrated Time-to-Digital Converter Based on a Ring Oscillator for Programmable Delay Line Resolution Measurement - 0.4 ps Xilinx FPGA http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/jece/2014/230803.pdf First Order Noise Shaping Local-Oscillator Based Time-to-Digital Converter - Gated Ring Oscillator based TDC http://ims.unipv.it/~franco/ConferenceProc/313.pdf A High Resolution FPGA-based TDC with Nonlinearity Calibration http://www2.ess.nthu.edu.tw/~cwlu/conference/5_A%20High%20Resolution%20FPGA-based%20TDC%20with.pdf A Single-Slope 80MS/s ADC using Two-Step Time-to-Digital Conversion http://dspace.mit.edu/openaccess-disseminate/1721.1/60073 Simulation of ps-Detector Electronics http://hep.uchicago.edu/workshops/2005-picosecond/8-Fukun_Tang_ps_sim.ppt High Precision Time and Frequency Counter for Mobile Applications http://www.wseas.us/e-library/transactions/circuits/2010/89-747.pdf Time-to-Digital Converter based on Analog Time Expansion for 3D Time of Flight Cameras https://pure.ltu.se/portal/files/95016947/90220A.pdf A Pc-Based Time Interval Counter With 200 Ps Resolution http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA427911 The Development of Large-area, Picosecond Resolution, Time-of-Flight Detectors http://hep.uchicago.edu/~frisch/adr.pdf Low-Voltage High-Frequency Gated Ring Oscillator Using Bootstrap Technique http://www.el.gunma-u.ac.jp/~kobaweb/news/pdf/2012/AMDE2012_Kamiyama.pdf High-resolution short time interval measurement system implemented in a single FPGA chip http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/727/art%253A10.1007%252Fs11434-011-4421-3.pdf?auth66=1418360984_e35e8a8588d3977c4d4d4d2109c1aaaa&ext=.pdf Implementation of sub-nanosecond time-to-digital convertor in field-programmable gate array https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/in2p3-00873192/PDF/articleMST_Marteau-et-al_v1.pdf New Jitter Measurement Technique Using TDC Principle in a FPGA Component http://www.inatel.br/biblioteca/component/docman/doc_download/3831-new-jitter-measurement-technique-using-tdc-principle High Resolution Modular Time Interval Counter http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/timing/artyukh_time_interval_counter.pdf Using Dynamic Reconfiguration to Implement High-Resolution Programmable Delays on an FPGA http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~feeley/papers/BergeronFeeleyDaigneaultDavidNEWCAS08.pdf A 2.6ps rms -Period-Jitter 900MHz All-Digital Fractional-N PLL Built with Standard Cells http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu/publications/search/send_publication_pdf2client.php?pubID=1307595132 C111 / P111 4 channel Time to Digital Converter User's manual http://www.esrf.eu/files/live/sites/www/files/Instrumentation/DetectorsAndElectronics/Units/Electronics/digital-electronics-lab/c111.pdf Carry-chain propagation delay impacts on resolution of FPGA-based TDC http://www.j.sinap.ac.cn/nst/EN/article/downloadArticleFile.do?attachType=PDF&id=457 A 19.6 ps, FPGA-Based TDC With Multiple Channels for Open Source Applications http://ens.ewi.tudelft.nl/pubs/charbon12tcas_favi.pdf A data driven high performance Time to Digital Converter http://ph-collectif-lecc-workshops.web.cern.ch/ph-collectif-lecc-workshops/LEB00_Book/tracker/christiansen_track.pdf On-Chip Timing Measurement Architecture with Femtosecond Resolution http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262543/1/collinsm_timemeasurement2.pdf A 13b 315fs rms 2mW 500MS/s 1MHz Bandwidth Highly Digital Time-to-Digital Converter Using Switched Ring Oscillators http://www.cse.psu.edu/~xydong/files/proceedings/ISSCC2012/files/D27_04.pdf A high resolution Time-to-Digital Converter on FPGA for Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting http://libgen.org/scimag/get.php?doi=10.1109/mwscas.2012.6292166 A Design of Vernier Coarse-Fine Time-to-Digital Converter using Single Time Amplifier http://ocean.kisti.re.kr/downfile/volume/ieek/E1STAN/2012/v12n4/E1STAN_2012_v12n4_411.pdf All Digital Time-to-Digital Converter with High Resolution and Wide Detect Range http://www.engineeringletters.com/issues_v19/issue_3/EL_19_3_16.pdf Examples of 1 PPS Clock Measuring Systems http://www.wriley.com/Examples%20of%201%20PPS%20Clock%20Measuring%20Systems.pdf On-Chip Processing for the Wave Union TDC Implemented in FPGA http://lss.fnal.gov/archive/2009/conf/fermilab-conf-09-275-e.pdf 18-channel FPGA Wave Union TDC for Time-of-Flight Applications http://lss.fnal.gov/archive/2009/conf/fermilab-conf-09-573-ppd.pdf A 96-channel FPGA-based Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) http://www.phys.sinica.edu.tw/~e906/WWW_public/Doc/TDC/FPGA_TDC.pdf Design of FPGA-based TDC for the ICAL Detector of India-based Neutrino Observatory http://www.hecr.tifr.res.in/~sudeshnadg/publication/FPGA_TDC.pdf FPGA based Time-to-Digital Converter http://www.sympnp.org/proceedings/56/G7.pdf A Flash Time-to-Digital Converter with Two Independent Time Coding Lines IMEKO-IWADC-2011-12.pdf http://www.imeko.org/publications/iwadc-2011/IMEKO-IWADC-2011-12.pdf A 17ps Time-to-Digital Converter Implemented in 65nm FPGA Technology http://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/139431/files/isfpga09-cfavi.pdf A 12-Bit Vernier Ring Time-to-Digital Converter in 0.13 um CMOS Technology http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~daifa01/Top/PubPapers/2010/Jpaper2010-02.pdf A high-speed wide dynamic range time-to-digital converter http://www.ssl.berkeley.edu/~mlampton/LamptonRaffanti.pdf High Resolution Time-Interval Measurement Systems Applied To Flow Measurement http://www.metrology.pg.gda.pl/full/2014/M&MS_2014_077.pdf Accurate time interval measurement electronics for pulsed time of flight laser radar http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~kari/Papers/Nantes1997.pdf Signal Processing for Pico-second Resolution Timing Measurements http://psec.uchicago.edu/Papers/NIM_v8b_final.pdf High-Resolution Time-to-Digital Converter in Field Programmable Gate Array http://cds.cern.ch/record/1158663/files/p383.pdf Random Errors in Time Interval Measurement Based on SAW Filter Excitation http://libgen.org/scimag/get.php?doi=10.1109/tim.2007.915465 A 96-channel, 500 ps resolution TDC board for the BaBar experiment at SLAC http://www.ge.infn.it/babar/ITB/RT99/paper.pdf A Cyclic Vernier TDC for ADPLLs Synthesized From a Standard Cell Library http://wwweb.eecs.umich.edu/wics/publications/Park_TCASI2011.pdf Nonlinearity Correction of the Integrated Time-to-Digital Converter with Direct Coding http://libgen.org/scimag/get.php?doi=10.1109/19.571882 PICTIC Interpolator Linearity http://www.wriley.com/PICTIC%20Interpolator%20Linearity.pdf Firmware-only Implementation of Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) in Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) http://www-ppd.fnal.gov/EEDOffice-W/Projects/ckm/comadc/PID26522.pdf High-Precise Portable Time Interval and Frequency Counter http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/ptti/2012papers/PTTI2012.p247.pdf FPGA-based time counters with a wander measurement mode http://www.pwt.et.put.poznan.pl/PWT_2012/PWT%202012_2242.pdf The Simple PICTIC http://www.ko4bb.com/dokuwiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?id=precision_timing%3Apictic&cache=cache&media=precision_timing:simple_pictic.pdf A Saw-tooth Wave Based Design of Time to Digital Converter http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2009/budapest/SMO/SMO68.pdf A Multi-Path Gated Ring Oscillator TDC With First-Order Noise Shaping http://www.cppsim.org/Publications/JNL/straayer_jssc09.pdf Micrel LVPECL, CML 5GHz - 7GHz Buffer http://www.micrel.com/_PDF/Eval-Board/sy58011-12-13u_eb.pdf Micrel LVPECL, CML 4GbpS - 10.7Gbps Multiplexer http://www.micrel.com/_PDF/Eval-Board/sy58017-18-19u_eb.pdf A flash high-precision Time-to-Digital Converter implemented in FPGA technology http://indico.cern.ch/event/49682/session/35/contribution/3/material/slides/0.ppt FPGA-Based High Area Efficient Time-To-Digital IP Design http://www.ifm.umich.mx/~villasen/TESIS/Mario/TDC.pdf Firmware-only Implementation of Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) in FPGA http://www-ppd.fnal.gov/EEDOffice-W/Projects/ckm/comadc/tdc1s.pdf A Time-To-Digital Converter (TDC) https://indico.phys.hawaii.edu/getFile.py/access?contribId=4&resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=392 96-Channel FPGA-Based Time-To-Digital Converter http://hep.uchicago.edu/~frisch/TDC_NIM_v12.pdf Texas Instruments THS788 Quad-Channel Time Measurement Unit (TMU) http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/ths788.pdf A 128-channel Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) inside a Virtex-5 FPGA on the GANDALF module http://wwwhad.physik.uni-freiburg.de/gandalf/modules/download_gallery/dl.php?file=59 Vernier's Delay Line Time-to-Digital Converter http://www.np.ac.rs/yu/preuzimanjasve/publications/vol1br1/181-verniers-delay-line-time-to-digital-converter/download Time-to-Digit Converter Based on Radiation-Tolerant FPGA - Interesting calibration analysis http://kmlinux.fjfi.cvut.cz/~vacekmic/docs/vzlu_tdc.pdf A High-Resolution Time-to-Digital Converter Implemented in Field-Programmable-Gate-Arrays http://mi.sibet.cas.cn/zlgx/201310/W020131024537685817071.pdf Picosecond Resolution Time-to-Digital Converter Using G m -C Integrator and SAR-ADC http://www.ssc.pe.titech.ac.jp/publications/2014/IEEE_trans/xu/Xu_GmTDC_Journal_Final_V5.pdf A Design of Vernier Coarse-Fine Time-to-Digital Converter using Single Time Amplifier http://www.jsts.org/html/journal/journal_files/2012/12/Year2012Volume12_04_05.pdf Patents Burbeck METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY MEASURING TIME INTERVALS https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US2665410.pdf Frady DOUBLE INTERPOLATION METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING TIME INTERVALS https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US2665411.pdf Bagley ELECTRONIC INTERPOLATING COUNTER FQR THE TIME INTERVAL AND FREQUENCY MEASUREMENT https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US3133189.pdf Nutt DIGITAL INTERVALOMETER https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US3983481.pdf Janowitz TIME INTERVAL MEASUREMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US3999128.pdf Thornton HIGH RESOLUTION DATA ACQUISITION http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US5200933.pdf Condreva HIGH RESOLUTION TIME INTERVAL COUNTER https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US5333162.pdf Kattan TIME INTERVAL ANALYZER HAVING MULTIPLE MEASUREMENT CIRCUITS http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US6226231.pdf Nair CORRECTION FOR PIPELINED ANALOG TO DIGITAL (A/D) CONVERTER http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US6784814.pdf Gao HIGH RESOLUTION SAMPLING-BASED TIME TO DIGITAL CONVERTER http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US8564471.pdf Thesis An Integrated Cmos High Precision Time-To-Digital Converter Based On Stabilised Three-Stage Delay Line Interpolation - Excellent review http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn951427461X/isbn951427461X.pdf Multi-Path Differential Delay Line based Time-to-Digital Converter for ADPLL http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:635168/FULLTEXT01.pdf Noise Shaping Techniques for Analog and Time to Digital Converters Using Voltage Controlled Oscillators http://cppsim.org/Publications/Theses/straayer_phdthesis.pdf Implementation of the high resolution high dynamic Time to Digital Converter https://www.politesi.polimi.it/bitstream/10589/92658/1/Thesis_V1.0.2_Build04031059.pdf A Stabilized Multi- Channel Cmos Time-To- Digital Converter Based On A Low Frequency Reference http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514299322/isbn9789514299322.pdf _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
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