Abstract: High-precision time interval measurement techniques play a significant role in the economy and the military. The paper deals with a novel high-precision time interval measurement method up to 1 ps or even higher precision. The method utilizes a surface acoustic wave dispersive delay line as a time interpolator. The time interpolator can have the form of a time stretcher, so as to get many observations. Thanks to possible averaging, the overall error can be greatly reduced. It’s indicated, by the theoretic analysis and experiment, that the time interval measurement method is practical with high precision.

Key words: Time interval measurement, Time interpolator, SAWDDL, Cross correlation