A HIGH RESOLUTION MULTISTOP TIME-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER

THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS DEVELOPMENT OF A TIME-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER (TDC) OPTIMIZED FOR TIME-OF-FLIGHT ENERGY AND MASS SPECTROMETERS. THE TDC WILL COMBINE 100 PS TIME RESOLUTION, 30 NS DEAD TIME, 2048 STOPS OVER A TOTAL TIME INTERVAL LONGER THAN 100 MS, AND AN AVERAGE DATA RATE LIMITED BY BUS SPEED. THE TDC WILL ACCOMMODATE AUXILIARY DATA ARRIVING IN COINCIDENCE. IT WILL CONFORM TO ONE OF THE MODULE INTERCONNECT STANDARDS, SUCH A FASTBUS, CAMAC, OR VME. DURING PHASE I THE INTERPOLATOR SECTION OF THE TDC WILL BE DESIGNED, BUILT, TESTED, AND OPTIMIZED. SEVERAL POSSIBLE TDC FEATURES SUCH AS MULTIPLE INPUTS, MULTIPLE CHANNELS, AND ON-BOARD INTELLIGENCE WILL ALSO BE EVALUATED IN ORDER TO DEFINE THE TDC CONFIGURATION THAT WILL BE BUILT IN PHASE II.