High resolution time capture circuit and corresponding device, capture method and computer program product

Abstract

A time capture circuit can measure time between edges of a logic input signal. A delay line generates consecutive increasingly delayed replicas of the logic input signal. A free running counter is clocked by a counter clock signal corresponding to an external clock signal multiplied by a clock scale factor. A counter value capture circuit captures the counter value upon occurrence of an edge in the input signal, outputs a captured counter value, and issues a trigger signal. A decoder determines a decoded value based on values of the input signal and of the plurality of consecutive increasingly replicas when the trigger signal is issued and computes a capture value as the difference of the captured counter value logical left shifted by a first scale factor and the decoded value logical right shifted by a second scale factor.