The Time of Flight System on a Chip (TOF Chip)

This single mixed analog-digital, low-power, precise time interval measurement chip will be a valuable enabling technology for next-generation small spacecraft, particularly for spacecraft constellations, for spectrometry, imaging and range-finding instruments.

The remote input/output (RIO) smart sensor chip is JHU/APL’s mixed analog-digital, radiation-hardened, low-power, data acquisition device suitable for spacecraft and instrument data collection. The chip communicates over a standard serial I2C bus or a standard parallel bus. RIO, in its complete version, will measure temperatures using external thermistors, total ionizing dose using external rad field-effect transistors (radFETs), voltages, and currents. Its sensing capability can extend to other physical quantities such as photons and vibration. A first version of this chip is focusing on temperature measurements only (TRIO chip). TRIO measures 16 temperature channels using external platinum resistance thermometers. It can also measure voltages only, using an external voltage reference. The TRIO chip contains comprehensive front-end analog conditioning circuitry, the analog multiplexer, a 10-bit analog-digital converter (ADC), memory, and both a serial I2C and standard parallel interface. TRIO can operate in a fixed mode, where only a particular sensor is addressed then digitized and read out, or in a scanning mode, where all 16 sensors are sequentially and continuously scanned, digitized, stored into self-contained memory, and then read out.


Patent Status: U.S. patent(s) 7012248 issued.

Patents:
US 7,012,248   [MORE INFO]

Type of Offer: Licensing



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