Phase meter using a permuter

A phase meter for measuring a phase of a first signal with respect to a second signal, comprising:

• a sampler receiving the first and second signals, and sampling the first signal based on the second signal;
• a permuter receiving the second signal and permuting phase positions of the second signal;
• a bin assigner connected to the permuter and sampler, comparing a phase value received from the permuter with a plurality of phase ranges corresponding to phase bins, and selecting a phase bin based on the phase value and the phase ranges of the phase bins, and outputting a bin signal indicating the determined bin;
• a plurality of bin counters each corresponding to one of said phase ranges, and each counting in response to the bin signal if the bin signal indicates the respective bin;
• a pattern finder coupled to the plurality of bin counters and determining a phase evaluation formula based on the counts in the plurality of bin counters;
• and
• a phase evaluator evaluating a phase difference between the first and second signals based on the determined phase evaluation formula and the bin counts, and outputting a phase measurement signal.