Texas Instruments (TI) C7200 Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) is used for ultrasonic sensor measurements, such as water flow meters, gas flow meters, and thermal flow meters.
When paired with the TDC1000 (ultrasonic analog front end), the TDC7200 can be part of a complete TI ultrasonic sensing solution, which includes MSP430, power supply, wireless and source code.
The device performs a stopwatch function and measures the elapsed time (TOF) between the start pulse and up to five stop pulses. The ability to measure from start to stop multiple times gives users the flexibility to choose which stop pulse produces the best echo performance.
The device has an internal self-calibration time base that can compensate for drift over time and temperature. Self-calibration can achieve picosecond time-to-digital conversion accuracy. This accuracy of the TDC7200 makes it ideal for flowmeter applications where high accuracy is required for zero flow and low flow measurement.
When the TDC7200 is placed in an autonomous multi-cycle average mode, it can be optimized for low system power consumption, making it ideal for battery-powered flow meters. The company said that in this mode, the host can go to sleep to save power, and can wake up when it is interrupted by TDC after completing the measurement sequence.
