A Synchronous Digital Phase Detector Architecture based on a Coarse Time-to-Digital Approach

Phase detection plays a key role in many scientific and industrial applications. Nowadays interest is put also in using the phase difference as a way to deploy localization and positioning systems. In this work, we describe and experimentally validate a novel and lightweight digital approach to phase difference estimation based on time delay measurement. The architecture is fully synchronous and employs a coarse simple Time-to-Digital converter fed by delay measurement stages to transform the phase difference information into a digital word. The experimental campaign proves what is described through the formulas that can be employed to dimension the architecture based on the desired accuracy.