Patent ID: 8456195

Claim:
A system comprising an apparatus for measuring a time interval between first and second selected edges of an input signal, said apparatus comprising: an edge generator having a first output node for producing a first edge derived from a first edge of the input signal, and a second output node for producing a second edge derived from the second selected edge of said input signal; a first multi-tap delay module having its input operatively coupled to said first output node of said edge generator for providing a first incremental delay at each tap provided by a first plurality of delay elements; a second multi-tap delay module having its input operatively coupled to said second output node of said edge generator for providing a second incremental delay at each tap provided by an equal-numbered second plurality of delay elements where said second incremental delay is less than said first incremental delay for each delay element in the second plurality of delay elements with respect to the corresponding delay element in the first plurality of delay elements; and a multi-element phase detector in which each element has a first input operatively coupled to a selected tap of said first multi-tap delay module, and a second input operatively coupled to a corresponding tap of said second multi-tap delay module, the outputs of said multi-element phase detector providing a value of the time interval.