Patent ID: 7020567

Claim:
A system for measuring a signal propagation delay, said system being adapted to electrically communicate with at least one transmitter and at least one receiver, said system comprising: a first bit sequence generator used to generate a first sequence of bits that is to be transmitted through an object with, an unknown propagation delay; a second bit sequence generator that receives said first sequence of bits from said object, said second bit sequence generator generating a second sequence of bits identical to said first sequence; and a controller that receives said first and second sequences of bits, said controller compares said sequences to confirm that said sequences are identical, instructs said first bit sequence generator to inject a predefined bit error into a third sequence of bits while simultaneously starting a clock count from a clock source, maintains said count that is incremented each time said controller checks for said bit error, stops incrementing said count when said bit error is detected, and computes said propagation delay by reference to said count.