A high-resolution programmable Vernier delay generator based on carry chains in FPGA

• Published in: Review of scientific instruments 2017-06, Vol.88 (6), p.064703-064703
• Main Authors: Cui, Ke, Li, Xiangyu, Zhu, Rihong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chains; Delay; Field programmable gate arrays; High resolution; Linearity; Nonlinearity; Scientific apparatus & instruments
• ISSN: 0034-6748; 1089-7623
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4985542

This paper presents an architecture of a high-resolution delay generator implemented in a single field programmable gate array chip by exploiting the method of utilizing dedicated carry chains. It serves as the core component in various physical instruments. The proposed delay generator contains the coarse delay step and the fine delay step to guarantee both large dynamic range and high resolution. The carry chains are organized in the Vernier delay loop style to fulfill the fine delay step with high precision and high linearity. The delay generator was implemented in the EP3SE110F1152I3 Stratix III device from Altera on a self-designed test board. Test results show that the obtained resolution is 38.6 ps, and the differential nonlinearity/integral nonlinearity is in the range of [−0.18 least significant bit (LSB), 0.24 LSB]/(−0.02 LSB, 0.01 LSB) under the nominal supply voltage of 1100 mV and environmental temperature of 20 °C. The delay generator is rather efficient concerning resource cost, which uses only 668 look-up tables and 146 registers in total.