Patent ID: 8447548
Filing Date: 2013-05-21
Classification: G01R,G04F

Abstract:
1. A method for identifying and measuring a signal pulse induced in a microcircuit due to ionizing radiation comprising: locating an ionizing radiation induced pulse across a microcircuit using a plurality of sensors on the microcircuit; radiating a radiation through the microcircuit to produce a pulse width; calibrating a time to digital converter (TDC) with a voltage control oscillator and, an encoder, or a divider and the encoder, to determine a resolution accuracy of the pulse width and a measurement resolution of the pulse width by generating a series of multiple pulses from the voltage control oscillator and transmitting the multiple pulses either directly to the encoder, or to the divider, to a frequency counter, and then to the encoder, wherein the multiple pulses transmit with no delays and transmit with delays through eight (8) or more delay paths, and wherein the calibrating further comprises measuring a known pulse width with the TDC and stepping the pulse width to larger and larger pulses until all of a plurality of eight (8) or more different measurement delays in the TDC have been simulated, resulting in knowing what each of the TDC delays are; using the TDC to measure a duration of each of the pulse widths to create a measured pulse widths comprising eight (8) or more pulse width pieces of information indicating the pulse width is larger or smaller than each corresponding delay path; and using the TDC to directly convert on the microcircuit each of the measured pulse widths into a digital signal.