ETAM: Next Generation Event Timer for Picosecond-Precision Time and Amplitude Measurements

Abstract

Riga Event Timers have the ability to measure the interval between events with high resolution, on the order of picoseconds. However, they have several drawbacks, such as sensitivity to environmental temperature changes and an inability to capture the amplitude of the events. In this work, we present the ETAM: a next generation Event Timer. Its innovative features include adaptive correction of measurement errors based on an internal temperature sensor, and integrated peak-detector circuit to determine the amplitude of nanosecond-duration pulses. Evaluation shows that the ETAM has high thermal stability with a root mean square error (RMSE) of <3 ps in a temperature range between 0 and +40 °C, and accurate event amplitude measurement capability, with <2.3 mV RMSE in the 100–1000 mV range. These improvements allow the ETAM to be used in satellite laser ranging, optical time-domain reflectometry, and other field applications that require temperature- and amplitude-based time correction in addition to high robustness, performance, and stability.