Reaching a few picosecond timing precision with the 16-channel digitizer and timestamper SAMPIC ASIC

Abstract

SAMPIC is a Time and Waveform to Digital Converter (TWDC) multichannel chip. It integrates 16 channels each including DLL-based TDC providing a raw time associated with an ultra-fast analog memory sampling the signal used for precise timing measurements as well as other parameters of the pulse. Every channel also integrates a discriminator that can trigger it independently or participate to a more complex trigger. After triggering, the analog samples are digitized by on-chip ADCs and are sent serially to the acquisition. The paper describes the architecture of SAMPIC and reports the main performance measured on the first prototype chip with a focus on timing resolution in the range of 15ps RMS using raw data improved to less than 5ps RMS after a simple calibration.