Sensors & Transducers (Dec 2021)
Parallel, Multi-Channel Frequency & Time Measurements with Picosecond Resolution
Abstract
A new approach to combine the performance of traditional Universal Frequency Counters (UFC) and high performance Time Interval Analyzers (TIA) in a single instrument in a portable benchtop format. For the first time in the industry, a UFC with all traditional timer/counter functions and full input signal dynamic range to 100 Vp-p has up to 5 parallel timestamping channels for frequency, period, time, or phase measurements. Advanced TIA functionality is included, like continuous timestamping with 7 ps resolution, acquisition speed of 20 MSa/s of complete measurement results, multi-stop Time Interval measurements, and continuous streaming of time stamped trigger events. Resolution enhancement techniques improve basic resolution up to 0.8 ps/Gate_Time for Frequency using linear regression, and up to 3.5 ps/Timestamp (Single-shot) using parallel multi-channel timestamping on a single input signal. This project was developed by Pendulum Instruments, Banino, Poland in close cooperation with the Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
