CN114114885A - High-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on TOT mode - Google Patents
High-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on TOT mode Download PDFInfo
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Abstract
The invention discloses a high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on a TOT mode, which comprises a detector, a preamplifier, a discriminator, a TOT counter, a TOA counter and a time fine quantization circuit module, wherein the detector is connected with the preamplifier; the time fine quantization circuit module consists of n delay units and n registers; the detector generates a charge pulse; the output of the preamplifier after the charge pulse amplification treatment is at the input end of the discriminator and the threshold voltage VTHAfter comparison, outputting a digital trigger signal as a gating signal of the TOT counter to count the clock Clk, and stopping continuous counting of the clock signal by the TOA counter; the time fine quantization circuit module improves time resolution through fine quantization measurement, sets reasonable delay unit number and delay, and can improve time precision under the condition of not improving working clock frequency. The invention obviously improves the time precision of the reading circuit and simplifies the complexity of the design under the condition of not introducing PLL to generate higher clock frequency.
Description
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical field of integrated circuits, and particularly relates to a high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit.
Background
In radiation detection systems such as X-ray imaging and particle trajectory reconstruction, a front-end readout circuit based on a TOT mode is commonly used. The TOT readout mode can obtain the time and energy information of the incident particle at the same time, and the conventional particle arrival time measurement front-end circuit based on the TOT mode mainly comprises the following parts: detector, preamplifier, discriminator, TOT counter, TOA counter, as shown in fig. 1. The working principle is as follows: after the incident particles interact with the detector, charge pulses are generated under the action of bias voltage V _ bias, the preamplifier amplifies the charge pulses and outputs signals with amplitude in direct proportion to the energy of the incident particles, and the output of the preamplifier is connected with threshold voltage V at the input end of the discriminatorTHAfter the comparison, a digital trigger signal with a certain pulse width is output, the trigger signal is used as a gating signal of the TOT counter to count the clock Clk, and the TOA counter stops continuously counting the clock signal when the rising edge of the trigger signal is detected. Since the output signal of the preamplifier has a short rise time and a fall time proportional to the signal amplitude, the leading edge of the trigger signal can be used to mark the arrival time of the incident particle and the width of the trigger signal can be used to measure the energy of the incident particle.
The document [1 ] X.Llopart, R.Ballabriga, M.Campbell, L.Tlustos, W.Wong, "Timepix, a65k programmable pixel readout chip for arrival time, energy and/or photo counting measurements", Nuclear Instrument and methods in Physics Research, A, Vol.581, pp 485-.
As can be seen from FIG. 2, the output of the present amplifier is above the threshold VTHWhen the rising edge of the trigger signal is detected, the TOA counter stops counting at the next rising edge of the clock. So that the energy Q of the incident particleinAnd time of arrival TarrivalExpressed as:
Qin＝NTOT·TClk·kTOT (1)
Tarrival＝(NTOA_stop-NTOA_start)·TClk-terror (2)
wherein N isTOTIs the value of the TOT counter, TClkIs a clock period, kTOTIs a time energy conversion coefficient, NTOA_stopIs the value at which the TOA counter stops counting, NTOA_startIs the initial count value of the TOA counter, terrorIs the time difference between the rising edge of the trigger signal and the rising edge of the clock at which the TOA counter stops counting.
As shown in fig. 2 and equation (2), the conventional particle arrival time measurement front-end circuit based on the TOT mode has a time resolution of terror，terrorMaximum value of (A) is TClkDocument [1 ] the clock frequency of the circuit is 100MHz, which limits its time resolution to 10 ns. In order to achieve a time resolution of 1ns for the structure of fig. 1, the clock frequency needs to be 1GHz, so that a high-frequency clock can only be generated by an on-chip PLL, which increases the complexity of the design, and the number of bits of the counter increases with the increase of the clock frequency in order to ensure that the counter does not count overflow. Another way to improve the time resolution of the structure of FIG. 1 is to use a higher clock frequency for terrorThe method also involves the design of PLL, and needs additional counter pair terrorIs measured. Since the time resolution of the conventional TOT mode-based particle arrival time measurement front-end circuit is limited by the operating clock frequency, and the method of increasing the time resolution by increasing the clock frequency increases the design difficulty, a new readout circuit structure for increasing the time resolution is required to solve the above-mentioned problems.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, the invention provides a high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on a TOT mode, which comprises a detector, a preamplifier and a discriminatorThe time-of-flight counter comprises a TOT counter, a TOA counter and a time fine quantization circuit module; the time fine quantization circuit module consists of n delay units and n registers; the detector generates a charge pulse; the output of the preamplifier after the charge pulse amplification treatment is at the input end of the discriminator and the threshold voltage VTHAfter comparison, outputting a digital trigger signal as a gating signal of the TOT counter to count the clock Clk, and stopping continuous counting of the clock signal by the TOA counter; the time fine quantization circuit module improves time resolution through fine quantization measurement, sets reasonable delay unit number and delay, and can improve time precision under the condition of not improving working clock frequency. The invention obviously improves the time precision of the reading circuit and simplifies the complexity of the design under the condition of not introducing PLL to generate higher clock frequency.
The technical scheme adopted by the invention for solving the technical problems is as follows:
a high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on a TOT mode comprises a detector, a preamplifier, a discriminator, a TOT counter, a TOA counter and a time fine quantization circuit module; the time fine quantization circuit module consists of n delay units and n registers;
after the incident particles interact with the detector, generating charge pulses under the action of a bias voltage V _ bias; the preamplifier amplifies the charge pulse and outputs a signal with amplitude proportional to the energy of the incident particles, the output of the preamplifier is connected with the threshold voltage V at the input end of the discriminatorTHAfter comparison, the discriminator outputs a digital trigger signal with a certain pulse width, the trigger signal is used as a gating signal of the TOT counter to count the clock Clk, and the TOA counter stops continuously counting the clock signal when detecting the rising edge of the trigger signal; the digital trigger signal is input into a first delay unit, the output of the first delay unit is used as the input of a second delay unit, and simultaneously, the output of the first delay unit and the clock signal are used as the input of a first register; the output of the second delay unit is used as the input of the third delay unit, and the output of the second delay unit is used as the input of the third delay unitThe output is used as the input of a second register together with a clock signal; and so on until the nth delay unit and the nth register;
the total maximum delay t of the delay units in the time-refining circuit moduledelay_totalDetermined by the operating clock frequency of the radiation detection system, i.e. one clock cycle; the number n of delay units and registers is determined by the time accuracy Δ t of the radiation detection system, i.e. n ═ tdelay_totalA,/Δ t; delay t of delay unitdelayRepresented by formula (3):
furthermore, after the discriminator outputs an effective trigger signal, the time-refining quantization circuit module delays the trigger signal for n times, and if the trigger signal after each time of delay is at a high level at the next clock rising edge, the corresponding register value is set to a high level; on the contrary, when the trigger signal is at the low level at the rising edge of the next clock after the mth time delay, the corresponding register value is set to be at the low level; thus, terrorThe fine quantization expression of (a) is:
terror＝(m-1)·tdelay+terror_delay (4)
wherein m is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to n, terror_delayQuantization error for time-refined quantization module, terror_delayHas a maximum value of tdelay；
The particle arrival time Tarrival' the expression is:
Tarrival′＝(NTOA_stop-NTOA_start)·TClk-(m-1)·tdelay-terror_delay (5)
because of terror_delayHas a maximum value of tdelaySo the time accuracy of the front-end readout circuit is tdelay。
Further, n is 10.
The invention has the following beneficial effects:
with the conventional TOT-based modeCompared with the time measurement front-end reading circuit, the time fine quantization circuit module is added in the circuit, and the time fine quantization circuit module is used for counting terrorFine quantitative measurement is carried out to improve the time resolution, and the reasonable number n of the delay units and the delay t of the delay units are set according to the design requirement of time precisiondelayThe time precision can be improved to t without increasing the working clock frequencydelay。
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a conventional TOT mode-based particle arrival time measurement front-end circuit.
Fig. 2 is a timing diagram of particle arrival time measurement based on the conventional TOT mode.
Fig. 3 is a high-precision time measurement front-end readout circuit based on the TOT mode according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a timing diagram of the high-precision time measurement front-end readout circuit based on the TOT mode according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a simulation result of the high-precision time measurement front-end readout circuit based on the TOT mode according to the embodiment of the present invention;
Detailed Description
The invention is further illustrated with reference to the following figures and examples.
The invention relates to a novel time measurement front-end reading circuit structure based on a TOT mode, in particular to a front-end reading circuit structure with time precision limited by system working clock frequency, which is suitable for a front-end reading special integrated circuit of a radiation detection system such as X-ray imaging and particle track reconstruction.
The invention aims to provide a high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit structure based on a TOT mode, which overcomes the problem that the time resolution of a traditional particle arrival time measurement front-end circuit based on the TOT mode is limited by the frequency of a working clock, and thus the time resolution of the time measurement front-end reading circuit based on the TOT mode is obviously improved.
The invention provides a novel high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit structure based on a TOT mode, and solves the problem that the time resolution of a conventional particle arrival time measurement front-end circuit based on the TOT mode is limited by the working clock frequency by adding a time fine quantization circuit module consisting of a delay unit and a register, so that the time precision of the reading circuit is obviously improved under the condition of not introducing PLL (phase locked loop) to generate higher clock frequency, and the design complexity is simplified.
A high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on a TOT mode comprises a detector, a preamplifier, a discriminator, a TOT counter, a TOA counter and a time fine quantization circuit module; the time fine quantization circuit module consists of n delay units and n registers;
after the incident particles interact with the detector, generating charge pulses under the action of a bias voltage V _ bias; the preamplifier amplifies the charge pulse and outputs a signal with amplitude proportional to the energy of the incident particles, the output of the preamplifier is connected with the threshold voltage V at the input end of the discriminatorTHAfter comparison, the discriminator outputs a digital trigger signal with a certain pulse width, the trigger signal is used as a gating signal of the TOT counter to count the clock Clk, and the TOA counter stops continuously counting the clock signal when detecting the rising edge of the trigger signal; the digital trigger signal is input into a first delay unit, the output of the first delay unit is used as the input of a second delay unit, and simultaneously, the output of the first delay unit and the clock signal are used as the input of a first register; the output of the second delay unit is used as the input of a third delay unit, and the output of the second delay unit and the clock signal are used as the input of a second register; and so on until the nth delay unit and the nth register;
the structure of the high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on the TOT mode is shown in fig. 3, and a time-refining quantization circuit module is added on the basis of fig. 1. Time fine quantization circuit moduleerrorThe time fine quantization circuit module is composed of n delay units and n registers, and does not need higher clock frequency, thereby avoiding the introduction of a PLL circuit and simplifying the design.
The total maximum delay t of the delay units in the time-refining circuit moduledelay_totalDetermined by the operating clock frequency of the radiation detection system, i.e. one clock cycle; the number n of delay units and registers is determined by the time accuracy Δ t of the radiation detection system, i.e. n ═ tdelay_totalA,/Δ t; delay t of delay unitdelayRepresented by formula (3):
the timing diagram of the time quantization circuit in the high-precision time measurement front-end readout circuit structure based on the TOT mode is shown in FIG. 4. After the discriminator outputs an effective trigger signal, the time-refining quantization circuit module delays the trigger signal for n times, and if the trigger signal after each time of delay is at a high level at the next clock rising edge, the corresponding register value is set to be at a high level; on the contrary, when the trigger signal is at the low level at the rising edge of the next clock after the mth time delay, the corresponding register value is set to be at the low level; thus, terrorThe fine quantization expression of (a) is:
terror＝(m-1)·tdelay+terror_delay (4)
wherein m is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to n, terror_delayQuantization error for time-refined quantization module, terror_delayHas a maximum value of tdelay；
The particle arrival time Tarrival' the expression is:
Tarrival′＝(NTOA_stop-NTOA_start)·TClk-(m-1)·tdelay-terror_delay (5)
because of terror_delayHas a maximum value of tdelaySo the time accuracy of the front-end readout circuit is tdelay. Time accuracy compared to document [1 ]]The improvement is obvious, and the improvement of the time precision of the circuit structure is not limited by the frequency of the working clock.
The specific embodiment is as follows:
the simulation result of the high-precision time measurement front-end readout circuit based on the TOT mode is shown in FIG. 5, wherein the ordinate represents time measurement error and the abscissa represents incident particles. The frequency of the working clock is 100MHz, the number n of the delay units is 10, and the delay t of the delay unitsdelayIs 1 ns. As can be seen from fig. 5, the time reaching of 10 current pulse signals with intervals smaller than 1ns is simulated, the time resolution of the circuit in document [1 ] is 10ns, and the time resolution of the circuit in the invention is 1ns, which is 10 times higher than that in document [1 ], thereby greatly improving the time accuracy of the time measurement front-end readout circuit based on the TOT mode.
Claims (3)
1. A high-precision time measurement front-end reading circuit based on a TOT mode is characterized by comprising a detector, a preamplifier, a discriminator, a TOT counter, a TOA counter and a time fine quantization circuit module; the time fine quantization circuit module consists of n delay units and n registers;
after the incident particles interact with the detector, generating charge pulses under the action of a bias voltage V _ bias; the preamplifier amplifies the charge pulse and outputs a signal with amplitude proportional to the energy of the incident particles, the output of the preamplifier is connected with the threshold voltage V at the input end of the discriminatorTHAfter comparison, the discriminator outputs a digital trigger signal with a certain pulse width, the trigger signal is used as a gating signal of the TOT counter to count the clock Clk, and the TOA counter stops continuously counting the clock signal when detecting the rising edge of the trigger signal; the digital trigger signal is input into a first delay unit, the output of the first delay unit is used as the input of a second delay unit, and simultaneously, the output of the first delay unit and the clock signal are used as the input of a first register; the output of the second delay unit is used as the input of a third delay unit, and the output of the second delay unit and the clock signal are used as the input of a second register; and so on until the nth delay unit and the nth register;
the total maximum delay t of the delay units in the time-refining circuit moduledelay_totalDetermined by the operating clock frequency of the radiation detection system, i.e. one clock cycle; the number n of delay units and registers is determined by the time accuracy Δ t of the radiation detection system, i.e. n ═ tdelay_totalA,/Δ t; delay t of delay unitdelayRepresented by formula (3):
2. the high-precision time measurement front-end readout circuit based on the TOT mode as claimed in claim 1, wherein the time-thinning circuit module delays the trigger signal n times after the discriminator outputs a valid trigger signal, and if the trigger signal after each delay is at a high level at the next clock rising edge, the corresponding register value is set to a high level; on the contrary, when the trigger signal is at the low level at the rising edge of the next clock after the mth time delay, the corresponding register value is set to be at the low level; thus, terrorThe fine quantization expression of (a) is:
terror＝(m-1)·tdelay+terror_delay (4)
wherein m is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to n, terror_delayQuantization error for time-refined quantization module, terror_delayHas a maximum value of tdelay；
The particle arrival time Tarrival' the expression is:
Tarrival′＝(NTOA_stop-NTOA_start)·TClk-(m-1)·tdelay-terror_delay (5)
because of terror_delayHas a maximum value of tdelaySo the time accuracy of the front-end readout circuit is tdelay。
3. The TOT-mode-based high-precision time measurement front-end readout circuit according to claim 1, wherein n is 10.
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Application publication date: 20220301 |