Asynchronous inputs and flip-flop metastability in the CLAS trigger at CEBAF

The impact of flip-flop metastability on the pipelined trigger of the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) detector at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) is studied. It is found that the newest emitter-coupled logic (ECL) flip-flops (ECLinPS) are much faster than older families (10 H) at resolving the metastable condition. This will allow their use in systems with asynchronous inputs without an extra stage of synchronizing flip-flops.<
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