公司自1996年成立以来，acam公司messelectronic有限公司一直致力于开发和生产解决方案和理念用于测量基于在皮秒的时间间隔测量。为高精度的时间测量开发集成电路的专业知识用于自定义时间测量通用测量类，如电阻或容量的普遍性。ACAM基于CMOS技术的纯数字转换器不但可以实现最佳的性能特点，但也完全打开了新的可能性，为客户的应用程序。

ACAM总部位于德国的Stutensee，靠近卡尔斯鲁厄城，之前是一家私有公司，员工25人，年销售额在数百万欧元。

ACAM公司的传感器接口方案，是基于该公司独家的时间数字转换技术开发的。这种技术提供了在皮秒范围内的精度，让用户在复杂的传感应用方面可得到明显的优势。它可用于扩展的基于时间的测量方法来确定其他被测量物体如转速、在高速状态下很精确的电容、或电阻值。基于ACAM技术的方案的功耗也非常低。ACAM的产品被用于工业电子、基础设施控制，也可用于医疗电子和汽车电子。此外，该技术在基于飞行时间和超声波原理的测量中表现卓越。

ACAM产品的核心是超高精度的时间间隔测量，也就是所谓的时间数字转换器（TDC）。在时差测量领域，acam数年来不断完善其核心技术——用标准CMOS工艺来集成数字化测量电路，以便能够同时满足高精度，高测量频率，低功耗和小体积等方面的要求。时间测量的普遍适用性给TDC带来了广阔的市场。

ACAM公司的目的是建立数字测量技术及其优点的替代通用模拟测量原理在传感器技术和汽车环境以及用于消费应用进入大的应用潜力。使用标准化的数字CMOS技术已经被证明是一大优势，即使在大规模应用中的使用。这简化了客户的要求，在执行专用IC的最高系统级芯片，简化和边际风险（SoC）解决方案。既定的ASIC供应商和晶圆代工厂的合作，确保为客户最高的质量和可靠性。

2014年，模拟芯片制造商奥地利微电子（AMS）收购高精度时间测量技术和相关传感器ASIC公司ACAM。此举是AMS向实现“用传感器塑造世界”目标又迈进了新的一步。



acam focus is on measuring tasks that require a resolution down to a few picoseconds. While a standard counter needs several hundred gigahertz, acam's products work with low and medium range reference clocks and are easy to use for the customer. acam offers the full range from low-cost ICs for industrial mass production through high-end ICs to full system solutions. The use of pure digital circuit design makes it easy to adapt the TDC to different measurement tasks. Accordingly, acam's strong core competence is the development of customized TDC‘s which are tailored to the specific measurement requirements of the customer. acam's TDCs are used in industrial, biomedical and scientific products.

Since its founding in 1996, acam messelectronic gmbh has been developing and producing solutions and concepts for measuring based on time interval measurement in the picosecond range. The expert knowledge in developing integrated circuits for high precision time measurement is used to customize the universal nature of time measurement to common measurement categories, such as resistance or capacity. Our pure digital converters based on CMOS technology not only achieve best performance characteristics but also open completely new possibilities for customer applications.

Based on acam's TDC (Time-to-Digital Converter) technology new product families arose named as PICOTURN, PICOSTRAIN and PICOCAP, which demonstrate the manifoldness and power of this  measuring principle. The KARDUX cup award of the PS02, a member of our PICOSTRAIN product family, emphasizes the innovation of our products. Their outstanding features are low power consumption, high accuracy and high measuring rates associated with competitive pricing.

The aim of the company is to establish our digital measuring technology and its advantages as alternative to common analog measuring principles to enter the large application potential in sensor technology and automotive environment as well as for consumer applications. The use of standardized digital CMOS   technologies has been proved as a big advantage even for the use in mass applications. This simplifies the implementation of customer requirements in 
application specific IC's up to System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions associated with are simplified and with marginal risk. The cooperation with established ASIC-vendors and silicon foundries guarantees highest quality and reliability for our customers.

Acam is dedicated not only to continuous enhancement of the existing product range, but also to responding to customer demands and suggestions with a high degree of flexibility and openness. This ensures that all solutions are custom tailored and represent the state-of-the-art in ultra-precise measurement technology.

TDC's

The core  of acam messelectronic product range is represented by Time-to-Digital converters. A Time-to-Digital converter is a measuring unit for time interval measurement with an accuracy in the picosecond range. The measuring principle is based on the delay of simple logical gates.  Despite of  their strong dependency to temperature and voltage the use of  appropriate control and calibration methods enables to use the gate delay as basic parameter for high precision time interval measurement.. The possibilities of modern CMOS processes permit single shot measurements with an accuracy up to 10 ps (that equals 100 GHz). The favorable statistical behaviour of the digital masuring circuit  allows to increase the precision by averaging in the range of femtoseconds. With it's latest product range acam sets standards for all fundamental parameters, such as precision, measuring rate, double pulse resolution, pulse width measurement , current consumption.

PICOSTRAIN - Innovative solution measuring resistor bridges

The measurement of electrical resistance is transformed to time measurement by measuring the discharging time. Patented methods that are used for driving the resistor bridge and preparation of the measurement data enable an accuracy that is comparable to high-end 24-Bit A/D-converters. Where the offset- and gaindrift as well as the adjustment possiblities is concerned PICOSTRAIN will even beat them. Therefore PICOSTRAIN products are perfectly suited for measering strain gages.  At last one item makes PICOSTRAIN unbeatable:  The very low current consuption of the whole sensor-converter-system. The outcome of this for battery driven systems, particularly in wireless strain gage applications is a significantly extended operation time.

PICOCAP - Flexibility in capacity measurement

The PICOCAP measuring principle is also based on acam's TDC  technology  (TDC  - Time-to-Digital Converter) and is a direct derivate of the  PICOSTRAIN measuring principle. PICOCAP capacitance to digital converters transform the variation of capacitance in a high precision time measurement. The ratio of  capacities is given through the ratio of discharging time. This new concept allows a high degree of flexibility and supports a wide capacitance range from pF up to several nF. Patent pending algorithms provide a good suppression of parasitic capacities and ensure a very good temperature stability. The precision to be achieved with PICOCAP is comparable to high-end 24-Bit A/D-converters and even surpasses them at high measurement rates. In combination with it's low power consumption PICOCAP is perfectly suited for all applications that require high measuring rate and accuracy as well as for portable and battery driven solutions with low current consumption.

PICOTURN - Rotational speed sensor for turbochargers

PICOTURN is a pure digital solution for sensing the rotational speed of a turbochargers compressor wheel. The special kind of measurement uses acam's TDC (Time-to-Digital Converter) technology to detect the attenuation of an inductance through eddy currents, and makes the system perfectly suited for the rough environmental conditions that can be found in an engine. The core of the system is represented by a TDC measurement unit followed by a DSP unit that calculates the rotational speed in the range from 200 rpm up to 400.000 rpm. The modular and compact  system is easy to mount and especially designed for easy sensor exchange. No modification of rotating parts is necessary. This makes the PICOTURN product family a potential basis for cost effective standard or customized solutions, perfectly suited for the specific needs to measure the rotational speed of turbochargers.