Method for determining a sampling time of a signal, device for determining the same, and method for determining a sampling parameter of a signal

1. A method for determining a sampling time of a signal, the method comprising:

determining a candidate sampling time of a signal for input to a sampling circuit;

determining a resultant sampling time at which the sampling circuit maps the candidate sampling time with a predefined quantization grid; and

determining a sampling time of the signal based on a noise shaping of a time quantization error between the resultant sampling time and the candidate sampling time.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the noise shaping of the difference comprises filtering a spectrum of the time quantization error.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein filtering the spectrum of the time quantization error comprises attenuating the spectrum of the time quantization error within a first band of frequencies and amplifying the spectrum of the time quantization error within a second band of frequencies, wherein the first and second bands of frequencies are non-overlapping frequency bands.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a spectrum of the signal is contained within the first band of frequencies.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

filtering the time quantization error and summing the candidate sampling time with the filtered time quantization error;

determining a second sampling time of the signal based on the sum of the candidate sampling time and the filtered time quantization error.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the candidate sampling time of the signal comprises a time of a zero-crossing of the signal.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the candidate sampling time of the signal comprises a time the signal changes from a first value to a second value.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the candidate sampling time of the signal comprises a time of a rising edge or a falling edge of the signal.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sampling circuit selects a gridpoint of the predefined quantization grid that is closest in time to the candidate sampling time as the resultant sampling time.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the candidate sampling time comprises an ideal sampling time of the sampling circuit.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the quantization error comprises a time delay error introduced by the sampling circuit to the ideal sampling time.

12. A device for determining a sampling time of a signal, the device comprising:

a candidate sampling time determiner configured to determine a candidate sampling time of a signal for input to a sampling circuit;

a resultant sampling time determiner configured to determine a resultant sampling time at which the sampling circuit maps the candidate sampling time with a predefined quantization grid; and

a sampling time determiner configured to determine a sampling time of the signal based on a noise shaping of a time quantization error between the resultant sampling time and the candidate sampling time.

13. The device of claim 12 , further comprising a noise shaper configured to noise shape the time quantization error, wherein the noise shaper comprises a filter configured to shape a spectrum of the time quantization error.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the filter is configured to shift the spectrum of the time quantization error to a predetermined band of frequencies, wherein the predetermined band of frequencies and a spectrum of the signal are in non-overlapping frequency bands.

15. A method for determining sampling times of a signal, the method comprising:

determining an ideal sampling time of a signal;

mapping the ideal sampling time to a predefined quantization grid to determine a first resultant sampling time;

determining a time quantization error as a difference in time between the ideal sampling time and the resultant sampling time; and

determining a second resultant sampling time by applying noise shaping to the signal with the time quantization error.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein mapping the ideal sampling time to the predefined quantization grid to determine the first resultant sampling time comprises selecting a gridpoint of the predefined quantization grid that is closest in time to the ideal sampling time as the first resultant sampling time.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the time quantization error is the distance in time between the gridpoint of the predefined quantization grid and the ideal sampling time.

18. The method of 15 , further comprising generating an output signal with the first resultant sampling time and the second resultant sampling time.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the output signal comprises an edge at one or more of the first resultant sampling time and the second resultant sampling time.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein determining the second resultant sampling time by applying noise shaping to the signal with the time quantization error comprises:

filtering the time quantization error and adding the filtered time quantization error to a second ideal sampling time; and

selecting the second resultant sampling time from the predefined quantization grid based on the sum of the filtered time quantization error and the second ideal sampling time.