The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 04, 2020
Filed:
Dec. 08, 2017
Ams Ag, Premstaetten, AT;
Christian Mautner, Premstaetten, AT;
Kerry Glover, Premstaetten, AT;
Friedrich Bahnmueller, Premstaetten, AT;
ams AG, Premstaetten, AT;
Abstract
A time-to-digital converter system has at least one time-to-digital converter comprising an oscillator, a counter being driven by the oscillator, an evaluation block connected to the counter and configured for determining a time difference associated with a start signal and a stop signal, and a histogram block with a number of bins for recording entries associated with the time difference. The system can be calibrated by operating or preparing to operate the time-to-digital converter system with a measurement clock signal defining a measurement interval, providing a calibration clock signal having a frequency higher than the measurement clock signal by a predefined ratio, using a selected clock edge of the calibration clock signal as the start signal and a subsequent clock edge of the calibration clock signal as the stop signal. The evaluation block determines a calibration time difference based on the respective clock edges of the calibration clock signal used as the start signal and the stop signal. A time measure associated with a counter step of the counter is determined based on the predefined ratio and the calibration time difference.