Design of a Voltage to Time Converter with High Conversion Gain for Reliable and Secure Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

Automation of vehicles requires a secure, reliable, and real-time on-chip system. These systems also require very high-speed and compact on-chip analog to digital converters (ADC). The conventional ADC cannot fulfill this requirement. In this paper, we proposed a Darlington pair- and source biasing-based high speed, secure, and reliable voltage to time converter (VTC). It is a compact, high-speed design and gives high conversion gain. The source biasing also helps to increase the input voltage range. The conversion gain of the proposed circuit is 101.43ns/v, which is 52 times greater than the gain achieved by state-of-the-art design. It also shows less effect of process variation and bias temperature instability.