Low Power 16-channel Wave Union TDC in a Radiation Tolerant FPGA

TL;DR

This paper presents a low-power, 16-channel wave union TDC implemented in a radiation-tolerant FPGA, achieving high resolution and stable performance suitable for radiation environments.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel wave union TDC design in a radiation-tolerant FPGA with detailed performance characterization under various conditions.

Findings

Resolution of 10.9 ps achieved

INL within +/-3 LSB peak-to-peak

Differential channel performance of 20 ps (1-sigma)

Abstract

The design and performance of wave union TDC implemented in a Lattice CertusPro-NX FPGA is discussed. This FPGA is available for radiation tolerant applications. The TDC is implemented with 16-channels and a 200 MHz reference clock. Each channel is able to record at an event rate of > 1 MHz. The performance of the TDC is assessed over voltage and temperature. Typical TDC performance has a resolution of 10.9 ps. Typical INL is +/-3 LSB peak-to-peak. Typical DNL is (+1.13,-0.77) LSB. Typical differential performance between two channels is 20 ps (1-sigma).