Time-to-voltage converter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10545462-B2
Application number	US-201916395861-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 26, 2019
Priority date	Mar 19, 2018
Publication date	Jan 28, 2020
Grant date	Jan 28, 2020

Abstract

A time-to-voltage converter (TVC) that can include a timer integrated circuit (IC), and a charging circuit including a constant current source and a capacitor connected in series. The capacitor can be connected to a discharge pin of the timer IC. The TVC can further include a trigger circuit and a reset circuit to receive a start signal and a stop signal, respectively, from an input line, and accordingly generate a trigger signal or a reset signal to trigger or reset the timer IC. A switch can be configured to, under control of an output signal of the timer IC, connect the input line with the reset circuit. A voltage across the capacitor when the timer IC is reset indicates a time interval corresponding to the start and stop signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A time-to-voltage converter (TVC), comprising:
a 555 timer integrated circuit (IC);
a charging circuit including a constant current source and a first capacitor connected in series, the first capacitor being connected to a discharge pin and a threshold pin of the 555 timer IC;
a second capacitor connected to a control pin of the 555 timer IC configured to filter noise between a power supply and a ground;
a trigger circuit including an RC differentiator circuit and configured to,
receive a start signal from an input line, and
generate a trigger signal corresponding to a voltage transition in the start signal to trigger the 555 timer IC;

a reset circuit including an RC differentiator circuit and configured to,
receive a stop signal from the input line via an AND gate, and
generate a reset signal corresponding to the stop signal to reset the 555 timer IC; and

the AND gate with output of the 555 timer IC and the input line as input,
wherein a voltage across the first capacitor indicates a time interval corresponding to the start and stop signals.

2. The TVC of claim 1 , wherein the trigger signal corresponds to a voltage transition in the start signal.

3. The TVC of claim 1 , wherein the reset signal corresponds to a voltage transition in the stop signal.

4. The TVC of claim 1 , further comprising:
an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) configured to convert the voltage across the capacitor to digital bits; and
latches configured to store the digital bits when the 555 timer IC is reset.

Assignees

• Univ King Fahd Pet & Minerals

Inventors

• Abuelma'Atti Muhammad Taher

Classifications

• G04F10/005

  Time-to-digital converters [TDC] (analog-to-digital converters with intermediate conversion to time or phase H03M1/50, H03M1/60) · CPC title

• H03M1/12

  Analogue/digital converters ({H03M1/001 – } H03M1/10 take precedence) · CPC title

• G04F10/10 Primary

  by measuring electric or magnetic quantities changing in proportion to time · CPC title

• H03K4/08 Primary

  having sawtooth shape · CPC title