The xTDC4-PCIe is based on a classic common-start architecture yielding high data throughput. In a common-start scenario, the arrival-times of pulses on the "stop"-inputs are measured relative to a signal on the "start"-input. The xTDC4-PCIe is ideally suited for a multitude of time-of-flight applications such as TOF mass spectrometery (TOF-MS), time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) and LIDAR.
The xTDC4-PCIe's four stop channels allow, for example, to use segmented detectors or measure pulses from a single detector channel at multiple thresholds to obtain rudimentary pulse height-information. Such features are benefitial in many TOF-MS applications and LIDAR light detection and ranging. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopes (FLIM) benefit strongly from the high timing resolution of the xTDC4-PCIe.
The integrate of a xTDC4-PCIe in applications your data acquisition application is easy! The board provides a stream simple data structures as a ring buffer, containing a list of relative time stamps for all stop events.