A Fast Improved Fat Tree Encoder for Wave Union TDC in an FPGA
Qi Shen, Lei Zhao, Shubin Liu, Shengkai Liao, Binxiang Qi, Xueye Hu,, Chengzhi Peng, Qi An

TL;DR
This paper introduces a fast, improved fat tree encoder (IFTE) for wave union TDCs in FPGAs, achieving high-speed encoding with bubble error suppression and broad applicability in delay chain based TDCs.
Contribution
The paper presents a novel IFTE scheme that significantly enhances encoding speed and accuracy for wave union TDCs in FPGA implementations, without requiring manual routing.
Findings
Achieved 7.7 ps RMS timing resolution in FPGA
Completed 276-bit to 9-bit encoding in 8.33 ns
Demonstrated effective bubble error suppression
Abstract
Up to the present, the wave union method can achieve the best timing performance in FPGA based TDC designs. However, it should be guaranteed in such a structure that the non-thermometer code to binary code (NTH2B) encoding process should be finished within just one system clock cycle. So the implementation of the NTH2B encoder is quite challenging considering the high speed requirement. Besides, the high resolution wave union TDC also demands the encoder to convert an ultra-wide input code to a binary code. We present a fast improved fat tree encoder (IFTE) to fulfill such requirements, in which bubble error suppression is also integrated. With this encoder scheme, a wave union TDC with 7.7 ps RMS and 3.8 ps effective bin size was implemented in an FPGA from Xilinx Virtex 5 family. An encoding time of 8.33 ns was achieved for a 276-bit non-thermometer code to a 9-bit binary code…
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