MINIMIZING THE WALK ERROR IN PULSEDTOF- LASER DISTANCE MEASUREMENT Ari Kilpel, Juha Ylitalo, Juha Kostamovaara University

of Oulu / Electronics Laboratory / Finland

1. INTRODUCTION In TOF (time-of-flight) laser distance meters the terms resolution and accuracy are usually used for determining the performance of the device. Resolution means the amount of random changes in the measurement result and it depends on the changes in the timing moment, which in turn depends on the ratio between noise and slew rate of the measurement pulse. If it is assumed that the distance is measured n times and the noise in the measurement process is randomly distributed, the resolution is improved by factor 1 / n compared to the single measurement result. In practice, when the measurement takes a long time, the drift of the measurement result (caused for example by changes in the temperature) limits the longest measurement time, which is reasonable to use. The term inaccuracy includes the nonlinearity of the device, the error in the automatic gain control (AGC), the long-time and temperature drifts of the measurement result and so called walk error. The walk error means changes in the measured distance as a function of the shape and power of the measurement signal reflected and collected from the target. The walk error is created in the time pickoff circuit, which converts the analog measurement pulses to logic level pulses so that only those pulses are accepted which are bigger than a certain reference value, which is usually selected to be a little bit higher than the noise level. The time-pickoff circuit is a essential component, not only in TOF laser radars, but also more generally in time spectroscopy, which is used for example in nuclear science measurements /Gedcke68, Paulus85/. The purpose is to get a logic output pulse that is precisely related in time to the occurence of an event. The performance of the time-pickoff circuit is measured with three parameters: drift, timing jitter and walk error. Drift means the long-term timing error as a function of component aging and temperature variations in the timing circuitry. Long-term drift can often be calibrated to a level small enough. Timing jitter, which is expressed with the term resolution, is caused by statistical fluctuation of the shapes of the measurement pulses and noise in the measurement system. The value of the walk error depends on the shape and amplitude of the measurement pulses. In principle both the power and shape may change in the measurement process. The propagation delay dispersion of the fibers and the limited slew rate of the amplifiers may affect to the shape of the measurement pulse. With a careful design and selection of the optics, fibers and post amplifiers we may omit the effect of the fiber dispersion and limited slew rate to the shape of the pulses. There is also some fluctuation between the shapes of successive pulses from the laser. However if the averaged shape of the pulses remain the same, we may include the effect of the shape fluctuation in the term of resolution.

In this work the reasons for the walk error in laser radars and methods to reduce it were examined. Measurements were done both with two channel and one channel laser radars. The term "two channel radar" means that both START- and STOP-pulses have their own amplifiers and time-pickoff circuits. The prototype distance meter used was a two channel laser radar, which was same type as mentioned in /Mtt93/. That type of laser radar is used in steel industry for measuring the thickness of the lining in a steel converter. The single channel laser radar used in the measurements was a commercially manufactured laser radar, which is used in ship yards for measuring shapes of the ship blocks in distances 2 - 30 m /Kaisto93/. The origin of the reason of the walk error is the same in both one and two-channel laser radars.

2. THE PRINCIPAL TYPES OF TIME-PICKOFF TECHNIQUES AND THE REASONS FOR WALK ERROR

The time-pickoff circuit creates a logic level timing pulse, when two signals become equal. These signals can be either two pulses or a pulse and a reference level. In several time-pickoff circuits a bipolar pulse is formed from the input pulse. The bipolar pulse crosses the reference level, which is usually zero level. The crossing time of the voltages is detected with a time discriminator. The discriminator used can be for example a comparator /Maier74/, /Cable88/ or a tunnel diode /Leskovar76/. There can be two origins for the walk error: either changing of the timing moment or because the slew rate of the input pulse affects to the operation of the time discriminator. In an ideal case the timing moment in the input of the time discriminator does not depend on the shape or amplitude of the input pulses. If the time discriminator is a comparator, the limited gain-bandwidth of the comparator product affects to the propagation delay, when the slew rate of the input pulses change. The higher the slew rate of the input pulse is, the smaller is the propagation delay of the comparator. If the slew rate of the input pulse is kept constant and the amplitude of the input pulses are changed, the propagation delay remains also unchanged, provided that the amplitude of the input pulses exceeds some minimum level /Binkley88/. The timing jitter of the measurement result depends on slew rate and noise of the input pulse:
2 t =

2 n
2 ( dV / dt ) V = D

(1),

where n is the r.m.s. noise of the input of the time-pickoff circuit and ( dV / dt ) V = D is the slew rate of the signal in the timing moment /Bertolini68/. Eq. 1 is derived for timing, where the input pulse crosses a reference level. From (1) it can be noted that the timing moment should be chosen as a point in which the value of noise is minimized and the value of the slew rate is maximized. There are many sources of noise in TOF laser radars: the signal-induced noise, the noise from avalanche photodiode and amplifiers and the noise from the background. The origin of almost all these noise

signals is current flowing in pn junctions, so their character is shot noise. In the reference /Mtt93/ it has been measured with a similar type TOF laser radar as used in this work, that at + 760 C background temperature the noises from the background and receiver electronics have equal values, about 7 pA Hz . When the temperature of the background is decreased to room temperature, the effect of the background noise can be neglected. The shot noise from the signal current created in the avalanche photodiode varies in the range 10 pA Hz 33 pA Hz , when the signal level varies in the normal operating range. So, in normal room temperature and at small signal levels both the noise from the electronics and the signal-induced noise must be taken into account. The higher the timing moment is chosen in the rising or trailing edge, the stronger the signal-induced noise is at the timing moment. In account to this the slew rate is small and the relaxation oscillations may cause instability in the top of the laser output pulse. For these reasons the timing moment should not be chosen near the peak of the pulse. The time-pickoff circuits can be divided roughly to two groups, constant fraction discriminators and leading edge discriminators. A leading edge discriminator produces an output pulse, when the leading edge of the input pulse crosses a fixed threshold level. In leading edge timing the time of occurence of the output pulse is a function of the amplitude and rise time of the input signal. Also, because the timing moment changes, the resolution does not remain in optimum level, when the amplitudes of the input pulses change. In order to decrease the walk error the reference level can be changed according to the amplitude of the input pulses. In the constant fraction timing the input signal is divided to two parts. The other part of the signal is delayed and a fraction of the undelayed signal is subtracted from it. The timing moment is the point where the two signals have equal amplitudes. This happens, when the combined bipolar pulse crosses zero level. The optimum fractional point and the value of the delay are selected so, that walk error and resolution are minimized /Gedcke67/. The delay action is usually implemented with a delay cable and the attenuating with a resistor divider. Pulse inverting is possible to realize with a pulse transformer or with a shorted delay cable. If the time discriminator used is a comparator, the delayed and undelayed pulses can be fed to the different input nodes and subtraction of the pulses from each other is not needed. The most popular CFD types are so called true-constant-fraction (TCF) and amplitude-and-rise-timecompensated (ARC) discriminators. The pulse diagrams of the two methods are presented in figures 1a and 1b. From the figures it can be seen that the delay of the latter pulse and the slew rate of the bipolar pulse are smaller in ARC techniques than in TCF techniques. For this reason the resolution of the ARC techniques is worse than in TCF techniques, provided that the noise in the leading edge is equally big in both methods. The advantage of the ARC method is that the timing moment remains stable, even if the rise time of the input pulse changes. The main principle of the CFD used in this research work was presented first in the reference /Kostamovaara85/. In this method the input pulse is divided to two parts. The other pulse is delayed, but the non-delayed pulse is not attenuated like in TCF and ARC methods. The time discrimintator used is a fast comparator with ECL logic outputs and the delayed and non-delayed signals are fed to different input nodes of the comparator. The value of the delay cable is selected so, that the two pulse levels cross each other at the trailing edge of the first pulse and at the same time the leading edge of the latter pulse. The timing moment is usually selected to be at a 30 % - 50 % level of the maximum

amplitude. The pulse diagram is presented in the figure 2a. With this method the advantage is that the resolution value is small, because the summed slew-rate value of the two input pulses is higher than in other CF techniques. In a CFD timing process the walk error is introduced by three reasons even if the timing is otherwise ideal: the limited gain-bandwidth product of the comparator, offset voltage between the input nodes of the comparator and possible crosstalk between the input node of the comparator and some other part in the circuit. The comparator used should have as high gain-bandwidth product as possible in order to get small walk error. The offset voltage between the input nodes may introduce walk error, but the offset voltage may be also used for cancelling the walk error, which is caused by the limited speed of the comparator. The effect of the offset voltage can be seen from the figures 2a and 2b. In fig. 2a the input pulses of the CFD are presented without offset voltage between the input nodes. It can be seen, that when the amplitude of the input pulse changes, the timing moment remains in the same point. If a positive offset voltage is added to the delayed pulse, the smaller the input pulse is, the earlier the timing moment moves. The third reason for the walk error may be some crosstalk in the circuit. It can be reduced by careful design of the circuit.

3. THE STRUCTURE OF A TOF LASER RADAR

The structures of the laser radars used in this work are presented in figure 1. The measurement system consists of a transmitter, two receiver channels, two constant fraction discriminators and a time measuring unit. In addition to that the system may include also an optical attenuator and a microprocessor unit, which measures the power of the received signal and controls the operation of the optical attenuator. The laser transmitter has its own oscillator and it sends optical pulses in 4 kHz frequency. The start-pulses are taken directly from the outgoing radiation from diffuse reflection. In a single channel laser radar the whole receiver channel is common to start- and stop-pulses, which are separated after the CFD to their own channels with logic gates. The transmitter includes a semiconductor laser, either a SH- or multiheterostructure MOCVD-type, the pulse power of which is in a range of 5 W - 50 W. The FWHM of the measurement pulses in the channel are in a range of 6-8 ns. The receiver channel consists of a silicon PIN- or avalanche photodiode and a transimpedance amplifier with a transimpedance of 7 k. The voltage amplification of the post amplifiers is about 20 (= 26 dB). The bandwidth of the whole receiver channel is 100 kHz - 100 MHz. The CFD converts the analog measurement pulses to ECL logic pulses, which are feeded to the TDC (time-to-amplitudeconverter). The TDC measures the time difference between the start- and stop-pulses. It consists of a 100 MHz oscillator and counters which roughly digitize the time interval to be measured. The time fractions between the start ans stop pulses and their respective next clock pulse but one are digitized with an interpolation circuit based on analog time-to-amplitude conversion /Kostamovaara85/. The distance value can be read from the output of the TDC as a 16 bit word with a PC or a microcomputer card. The simplified schematic diagram of the time discriminator is presented in figure 4. The threshold level of the noise comparator is adjusted according to the background noise. The noise level in the receiver channel after the postamplifiers is about 11 mVRMS in normal room lights and temperature. Then the amplitudes of the largest noise pulses are approx. 60 - 70 mV and the threshold level of the

noise comparator is adjusted for example to 100 mV - 150 mV. The output pulse of the noise comparator goes through ECL-flip-flop n:o 1 (type 10H131) to the data input of the flip-flop N2. So the output of the flip-flop N2, which is at the same time the output of the discriminator, can change its state only when the amplitude of the input pulse of the discriminator exceeds the threshold level adjusted to the noise comparator. The real timing pulse comes from the timing comparator to the clock input of the flip-flop N2. The flip-flop N1 has two purposes: it extends the the data input pulse of the flip-flop N2 and it latches the output nodes of the noise comparator as long time as the output of the flip-flop N2 resets the state of the flip-flop N1. The latter function is important, because if the output nodes of the noise comparator change, it may happen at the same time as the input pulses to the timing comparator cross each other. Then the output pulse of the noise comparator can be coupled to the input nodes of the timing comparator through the parasitical capacitances between the bonding wires in a dual comparator circuit. The strenght of the measurement signal can be estimated on the basis of the amplitude of the measurement pulses in the electrical channel, after the postamplifiers. The impedance of the channel is 50 ohms and the amplitude may usually vary in a range of 0.2 V - 2.0 V. In this range the single shot resolution of the device is in a range of 70 - 330 ps, when the device is located in normal room lights and temperature. Then the resolution of 10 000 measurements may vary in a range of 0.7 - 3.3 ps. In the laser radars used in this work the saturation level of the pulses coming out from the postamplifiers is approx. 2.7 V.

4. THE MEASUREMENTS

Three different comparator types were tested as time discriminators. The types were Analog Devices AD 96687 and Signal Processing Technology HCMP 96870A and SPT 9689. The walk error of the distance meter was measured with several offset voltages with all three comparator types. All the comparators tested are pin-compatible with each other. Some differences can be found in input resistance, connections of unused LATCH-inputs, propagation delay and the dispersion of propagation delay as a function of overdrive and slew-rate of the input signal. In all comparators the input capacitance depend on type of the case and it is approx. 1 pF with LCC-case and 2-3 pF with cerdipcase. In all measurements a double channel laser radar was used, except in the walk error measurement presented in figure 7d, which is measured with a single channel laser radar. The semiconductor laser used in double channel radar was a pigtailed MOCVD laser diode CVD-193F (manufactured by Laser Diode Inc.), the pulse power of which was 18 W measured from the end of the fiber. The rise and fall times (between 10 % and 90 %) of the channel pulse were 4.5 ns and 4.7 ns, respectively, and the FWHM was 7.9 ns measured with a oscilloscope Tektronix DSA602A, which has a bandwidth of 1 GHz. The shape of the channel pulse is presented in figure 5. In a single channel laser radar a smaller laser, type CVD-93F, was used. It had a pulse power of 5 W, rise time of 3.3 ns, fall time of 4.3 ns and FWHM of 6.8 ns. The delay cable in the constant fraction discriminator was 190 cm long in the measurements presented in figures 6 - 7d.. With that cable the cross point of the undelayed and delayed pulses was about at 38 % of the maximum height of the pulse, when the FWHM of the measurement pulse was 7.9 ns. The walk error measurements with zero offset voltage are presented in figure 6. The zero offset voltages were adjusted so, that the comparators oscillated at 50 % duty cycle, when no signal was fed to the input nodes and the output of the postamplifier was disconnected from the input of the CFD. Then the external offset voltage has compensated the internal offset voltage of the comparator. It could be noticed that the dependence of the propagation delay on the ovedrive and the slew rate of the input signal was clearly largest with the AD 96687 -comparator and smallest with the SPT 9689 -comparator. The walk error measurements with different offset voltages are presented in figures 7a-7d. The measurements have been done with a double channel laser radar using three different comparator types and with a single channel laser radar using only one comparator type, the SPT 9689. For all comparators the walk error curves have been measured with several values of offset voltage. Smallest walk error, +/- 1mm with input amplitude range 0.2 V - 2.0 V, was reached with the SPT 9689. The walk errors measured with single and double channel laser radars don't differ significantly from each other. The effect of the timing of the crossing point in the input of the timing comparator was studied by measuring the resolution and walk error values with several delay cable lenghts (figures 8a-8b). In all tests the comparator type was AD96687 and the offset voltage was 33 mV. Figure 8a presents the single-shot resolution of the laser radar with different cable lengths. From the figure it can be seen, that the single-shot resolution varies in a range of 8 mm - 39 mm in a amplitude range of 0.2 V - 2.0 V

in the best case, with 190 cm long delay cable. With larger input amplitudes than 1.3 V the resolution values were slightly better with longer delay cables than 190 cm, but with smaller input amplitudes than 1.3 V the resolution values were clearly best with 190 cm long delay cable. The resolution is in principle best with longest delay cables, because then the timing point takes place at a low point of the pulse, where the pulse power and at the same time the signal-induced noise are lowest. However with large offset voltages the timing point may move to a slowly rising point in the beginning of the input pulse, when the input amplitude is low and the delay cable is long. The result is deterioration of the resolution value.

5. EVALUATION OF THE VALUE OF THE WALK ERROR

In the evaluation of the value of the walk error theoretically several things must be taken into account: the dependence of the propagation delay on the slew rate of the input pulses and the offset voltage in the input nodes of the comparator. In all the calculations below it has been assumed that the internal offset voltage of the comparator circuit is zero. A simplified model of the propagation delay of a comparator has been intoduced on /Arbel80/. The internal capacitances of the comparator create the propagation delay. Let's suppose simply that the comparator is an amplifier, which has single pole and we operate in small signal range and the shape of the input pulses remains the same. The open loop gain in s-domain is:

U0 ( s ) e s D A( 0 ) = F(s) = Ui ( s ) 1 + sA( 0 ) 0

(2),

where A(0) is the open loop gain in zero frequency and 0 = 1 0 is the time constant corresponding to the upper -3 dB frequency limit of the unit gain. The term e s D means that there is a limit D in the minimum propagation delay. If the input signal is a linear ramp ui ( t ) = SR t , where the slew rate of the linear ramp is SR, then:

SR Ui ( s ) = 2 s
The Laplace transform of the output signal is:

(3)

SR e s D A( 0 ) U 0 ( s ) = F ( s )Ui ( s ) = 2 1 + sA( 0 ) 0 s

(4)

Now we may assume that D t << A( 0 ) 0 and use Taylor series replacement of ex: x x2 ex 1+ + . If we take inverse Laplace transform from U0(s) , we get: 1! 2 !

u0 ( t ) =

SR ( t d ) 2 2D

(5)

and the response time tcross required to reach some output level V0 is:

t cross =

2 V0 0 + D SR

(6)

From (6) it can be seen that in the propagation delay there is a constant part and a part, the value of which depends on the slew rate of the input signal. It can be noted that the propagation delay in small signal analysis has the simplified form:

t delay = A +
where A ja B are constants.

B slew rate

(7),

We can approximate the effect of the offset voltage summed to the input nodes of the comparator by using in the calculations pulses, which have linear leading and trailing edges (figure 9). Now we get the crossing point of the pulses from a pair of equations, which define the straight lines of the leading and trailing edges of the pulse:

y U of =

(U p + U of ) U of tr 0 0 Up tf 0

( x 0) (8),

y Up =

( x 0)

where Uof = offset voltage between the input nodes, Up = the amplitude of the input pulses in the comparator nodes, tr = rise time (0-100 %) of the pulse ja tf = fall time (100%-0) of the pulse. We get the crossing point tcross by solving the pair of equations in the crossing point. Then we get: 1 t cross = U of (9)

Up 1 1 + tr t f

If Uof, tr ja tf are constants, we get a simplified solution for the crossing point: t cross = C D slew rate (10),

where C and D are constants and the term slew rate means actually the sum of the slew rates of Up Up + . If we sum the equations 7 and 9 with suitable the leading and trailing edges: slew rate = tr tf constants A and B and measured rise and fall times tr and tf, we can calculate the walk error curves for some comparator with different offset voltage values. The result of such calculations is presented in figure 10. The constants A and B in equation 7 were selected as -220 and 320, respectively, when the input amplitude is expressed in millivolts and the delay in picoseconds. The constants A and B have been selected so that the calculated propagation delay is as close as possible to the measured propagation delay of AD96687 presented in figure 6. In equation 9 the rise time tr (0-100 %) was 4.9 ns and the fall time tf (100%-0) was 5.6 ns. When the calculated walk error curves of figure 10 and the measured walk error curves of figure 8a are compared with each other, it can be noticed that the walk error can be evaluated with reasonable accuracy with some defined offset voltage value, if the constants A and B in the equation 7 are known. It means that the dispersion of the propagation delay of the comparator as a function of slew rate of the input signal with zero offset voltage is known. The differences between calculated and measured curves are propably due to the fact that equation 7 is based on small signal analysis and in equation 10 we have approximated the edges of the pulses as linear, which is of course an approximation.

6. SIMULATING THE OPERATION OF CFD WITH SPICE

A simplified schematic diagram of a fast ECL-comparator (without latch circuits) is presented in reference /Saul82/. In that circuit an improved version of Plessey SP9687 comparator has been presented, which is pin-compatible with the later introduced Analog Devices AD96687. On the basis of this comparator a SPICE model of a comparator was designed, in which the transistors used had transistors with ft = 5 GHz in input and intermediate stages and Motorola 2N5179 parameters in output stages. The time discriminator circuit used in the simulation was a normal CFD circuit without latch stages in the comparators and without the 10H131 flip-flop circuit. The effect of the noise comparator on the timing comparator was simulated with a circuit, where a 0.2 pF capacitance was connected between the output of the noise comparator and the positive input node of the timing comparator. This capacitance means the capacitance between two bonding wires in a DIP case and its size was evaluated on the basis of reference /Analog Devices/. Walk error was simulated with different offset voltages (figure 11) and the effect of the noise comparator on the operation of the timing comparator was simulated with a +19 mV offset voltage (figure 12). In the simulations the internal offset voltage of the comparator is assumed to be zero and the 0-100 % rise- and fall times of the input pulses are assumed to be 4.2 ns. From figures it can be noticed that the shape of the walk error curves is similar in simulated curves and in the measured curves presented in figure 7a. In the simulations the walk error has been smaller as in the measurements, which probably is at least partly due to the fact that the transistor models used in the simulations are not exactly the same as those used in AD96687 comparator circuit. On the basis of figure 12 it can be evaluated that even a 0.2 pF capacitance has reasonably big effect on the shape of the walk error curve. For eliminating the disturbations between the comparators single comparator chips should be used. Other possibility is to prevent the changing of the output voltages of the noise comparator as long as the timing detection of the input signal of the timing comparator has passed. It can be realized for example by connecting the output of the flip-flop n:o 1 to the latch input of the noise comparator(figure 4). Then the output of the noise comparator is latched to unchanging state as long as the ouput pulse of the CFD has leaved. Even if two single comparators were used, care must be taken in order to prevent the output pulses of the noise comparator to affect to the input of the timing comparator.

7. SUMMARY

On the basis of one constant fraction discriminator (CFD) -type previously used in laser radars a new CFD circuit has been developed. In this method the input pulse is divided into two parts and the other pulse is delayed with a delay cable. The timing point is the crossing point of the undelayed and delayed pulses, which happens at the trailing edge of the undelayed pulse and the leading edge of the delayed pulse. The crossing of the two pulses is detected with a fast ECL comparator. With this CFD type numerous measurements have been done, where the walk error curves have been measured with different comparator types, delay cable lengths and offset voltages between the input nodes of the comparators.

The comparator types tested were Analog Devices AD96687 and two Signal Processing Technology types: HCMP96870A and SPT9689. With all the comparators measured the propagation delay depends on the slew rate on the input pulse so that the smaller the slew rate is, the longer the propagation delay is. The smallest change in propagation delay was achieved with the SPT9689. A simplified theory has been presented for the reasons of the walk error in time discriminators. In this theory it has been supposed that the comparator can be modeled as an amplifier, which has single dominating pole and the edges of the input pulses are linear in the whole range, which is used in timing with different amplitudes and offset voltages. Then the propagation delay of the comparator is inversely proportional to the square root of the slew rate of the input pulse. It has been noticed that the walk error produced by the limited gain-bandwidth product of the amplifier can be compensated in limited range of amplitude of input pulses by adding an external positive offset voltage between the input nodes of the amplifier. When an offset voltage is added, the shape of the "walk error correction curve" introduced by the offset voltage is inversely proportional to the slew rate of the input pulse. The total walk error of the CFD can be calculated as a sum of the propagation delay and the offset voltage correction curves. On the basis of this theory the optimum walk error curve can be calculated after the rise and fall times of the input pulses and the propagation delay of the CFD with zero offset voltage have been measured. A SPICE model of a CFD has been made using the schematic diagram of a fast ECL comparator as a part of it. The transistor models used in the comparator could be found in transistor libraries and were estimated approximately suitable for this purpose. The walk error curves were simulated using a PSPICE program. The simulated and measured curves are reasonably close to each other. The differences are probably due to the fact that the comparator circuit used is designed for other comparator type and the transistor models are not for the same transistotors which are used in the comparator circuit. When new time-pickoff circuits with smaller walk error are developed, it is important that the comparator used has a large gain-bandwidth product and the input pulses have as fast rise- and fall times as possible. However with high bandwidths the importance of the layout is increased and all the stray capacitances must be minimized in order to prevent the other parts of the circuit to disturb the input voltages of the timing comparator. Using a fast commercial ECL comparator (Signal Processing Technology SPT9689) in the time discriminator presented in this work a +/- 1 mm walk error in a signal amplitude range of 1:10 could be achieved.

REFERENCES:

/Analog Devices/: "High Speed Design Seminar", Section XI: "High Speed Techniques". /Arbel80/: Arie F. Arbel, "Analog Signal Processing and Instrumentation", 440 p., Cambridge University Press 1980. /Bertolini68/: G. Bertolini, "Pulse shape and time resolution", In: Bertolini, G. & Coche, A. (eds.), Semiconductor detectors, pp. 243-276, North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, 1968. /Binkley88/: David M. Binkley, Michael E. Casey, "Performance of fast monolithic ECL comparators in constant-fraction discriminators and other timing circuits", IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp.226-230, February 1988. /Cable88/: M.D. Cable, M.S. Derzon, R.G. Vieira, H.P. Spracklen, "A low jitter, low cost, time-offlight circuit", IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 35, No.1,pp.133-134, February 1988. /Gedcke68/: D.A. Gedcke, W.J. McDonald, "Design of the constant fraction of pulse height trigger for optimum time resolution", Nuclear Instruments and Methods, Vol. 58, pp. 253-260, 1968. /Kaisto93/: I. Kaisto, J. Kostamovaara, M. Manninen, R. Myllyl, "Laser radar based measuring systems for large scale assembly applications", SPIE Proceedings vol. 2088, 5-7 October 1993, Brighton, United Kingdom. /Kostamovaara85/: Juha Kostamovaara, Risto Myllyl, "A time-to-amplitude converter with constant fraction timing discriminators for short time interval measuring", Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A239 , pp. 568 - 578, 1985. /Leskovar76/: Branko Leskovar, C.C. Lo, Paul R. Hartig, Kenneth Sauer, "Photon counting system for subnanosecond fluoresence lifetime measurements", Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 47, No. 9, pp.1113 -1121, September 1976. /Maier74/: Michael R. Maier, Donald A. Landis, "Second version of a constant-fraction trigger redesigned with new integrated circuits and results with semiconductor detectors", Nuclear Instruments and Methods, pp. 245-247, vol. 117, 1974. /Mtt93/: Kari Mtt, Juha Kostamovaara, Risto Myllyl, "Profiling of hot surfaces by pulsed timeof-flight laser range finder techniques", Applied Optics, Vol. 32, No.27, pp.5334-5347, September 1993. /Paulus85/: T.J. Paulus, "Timing electronics and fast timing methods with scintillation detectors", IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. NS-32, Mo. 3, June 1985.

/Saul82/: Peter H. Saul, "A High-Speed Comparator Design Technique", IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. SC-17, No. 3, pp. 529-532, June 1982.

1.3 1.1 Amplitude [arbitrary units] 0.9 0.7 0.5 Inv.+Att. 0.3 0.1 -0.1 -0.3 -0.5 0 5 10 15 Time [ns] 20 Sum Delayed

Figure 1a. Formation of pulses in true-CF-timing (TCF). Sum=sum pulse, in which the zero crossing determines the timing point.

1.3 1.1 Amplitude [arbitrary units] 0.9 0.7 0.5 Inv.+Att. 0.3 0.1 -0.1 -0.3 -0.5 0 5 10 15 Time [ns] 20 Sum Delayed

Figure 1b. The formation of pulses in amplitude- and rise-time-compensated (ARC)- timing. Sum=sum pulse.

1.3 Amplitude [arbitrary units] 1.1 0.9 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.1 -0.1 0 5 10 15 20 25 Time [ns] 30 Timing point

Delayed Straight Atten.Del. Atten. Str.

Figure 2a. The formation of timing point, when no offset voltage is added between input nodes of the timing comparator.

1.3 Amplitude [arbitrary units] 1.1 0.9 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.1 -0.1 0 5 10 15 20 25 Time [ns] 30 Timing point 1 Timing point 2

Delayed Straight Atten.Del. Atten. Str.

Figure 2b. The formation of timing point, when an offset voltage has been added between the input nodes of the timing comparator.

LASER DIODE TRANSMITTER TRANSMITTER OPTICS PRE + POST AMPLIFIERS RECEIVER OPTICS STOP AMPLITUDE MEASUREMENT PRE + POST AMPLIFIERS OPTICAL GAIN CONTROL

DISTANCE RESULT

START TIMING DISCRIMINATION + TIMEINTERVAL MEASUREMENT

Figure 3. A simplified diagram of a laser radar.

10H131 /1

10H131 /2 S D C R

IN
C

LE

REF1
R

REF2

S D C R

OU

NOISE COMPARATOR

R C R R

DELAY= 8 ns

+
R

LE

R R R TIMING COMPARATOR

Figure 4. The schematic diagram of a constant fraction time discriminator used in this work.

1.2 1 Channel pulse [V] 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 10 20 Time [ns] 30 40

Figure 5. The delayed and non-delayed pulses measured from the input pins of the comparator AD96687. The offset voltage between the input pins was 36 mV and the length of the delay cable was 190 cm.

350 Difference of the delay [ps] 300 250 AD96687 200 HCMP96870A 150 SPT9689 100 50 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [mV]

Figure 6. The changing of propagation delay (walk error) of the CFD for three comparator types with zero offset voltage and 190 cm long delay cable.

20 15 10 Error [mm] 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [mV] 24 mV 30 mV 36 mV 42 mV 48 mV 54 mV 60 mV

Figure 7a. The measured walk error curves of the CFD with AD96687 with different offset voltages. The length of the delay cable used was 190 cm.

20 15 10 Error [mm] 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [mV] -2 mV 0 mV 2 mV 4 mV 6 mV 8 mV 10 mV

Figure 7b. The measured walk error curves of HCMP96870A with different offset voltages. The length of the delay cable used was 190 cm.

20 15 10 Error [mm] 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [mV] -2 mV 0 mV 2 mV 4 mV 6 mV 8 mV 10 mV

Figure 7c. The measured walk error curves of SPT 9689 with different offset voltages. The length of the delay cable used was 190 cm.

20 15 10 1 mV Error [mm] 5 3 mV 0 5 mV -5 7 mV -10 -15 -20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [V] 9 mV -1 mV

Figure 7d. The measured walk error curves of SPT 9689 with different offset voltages in single channel laser radar. The length of the delay cable used was 190 cm.

60 Single-shot resolution [mm] 50 40 30

Length of delay cable

110 cm 150 cm 190 cm

20 10 0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [mV]

230 cm

Figure 8a. The single-shot resolution of the device as a function of the amplitude of the channel pulse measured with four different delay cable lengths. The comparator type was AD96687 and offset voltage was 33 mV.

20 15 Walk error [mm] 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [mV] 130 cm 150 cm 170 cm 190 cm 210 cm

Figure 8b. The walk error curves measured with five different delay cable lengths. The comparator was AD96687 with 33 mV offset voltage.

U p

0 U t of t r t f

cross

Figure 9. The simplified input pulses of a CFD.

20 15 10 Error [mm] 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Amplitude of the channel pulse [mV] 24 mV 30 mV 36 mV 42 mV 48 mV 54 mV 60 mV

Figure 10. The walk error curves with different offset voltages for AD96687, which are based on adding the calculated propagation delay and calculated offset correction together.

20 15 Walk error [mm] 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 0 0.5 1 Amplitude of the channel pulse [V] 1.5 2 15 mV 18 mV 21 mV 24 mV 27 mV 30 mV 33 mV 36 mV

Figure 11. The simulated walk error curves with different offset voltages. The PSPICE model of the comparator in the simulations is based on a improved Plessey SP 9687 comparator.
10 5 0 Error [mm] -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Amplitude of the channel pulse [V] 190 cm

Figure 12. A walk error curve simulated with PSPICE. In the simulation a 0.2 pF capacitance had been added between the output of noise comparator and the positive input of the timing comparator.