23 August 2005

Chip scale atomic clock development

Symmetricom Inc, manufacturer in precise time and frequency products and services, has been awarded $3.4m, funding for Phase-III of the DARPA Chip Scale Atomic Clock program.

The development will produce miniature, low power atomic clocks for precision timing applications in hand-held battery-powered instrumentation for use by military personnel.

Symmetricom will develop miniature low power atomic clocks based on its proprietary coherent population trapping atomic interrogation technology and MEMS fabrication techniques.

Symmetricom is teamed with The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge Massachusetts and Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the development. The work leverages Symmetricom's extensive expertise as the world's largest and most diverse producer of atomic clocks.

Tom Steipp, CEO of Symmetricom commented, "Symmetricom has successfully met the DARPA milestones in Phase I and II and have now been selected to carry thedevelopment to completion. The size and power reductions will be critical elements to moving portable precision timing into the hands of US soldiers."

Atomic clocks provide enhanced accuracy, stability, and timing precision compared to quartz technologies. But size and power consumption of existing atomic clock technologies exceeds quartz-based clocks by several hundred-fold.

Existing deck of cards sized miniature atomic clocks consume power comparable to a notebook computer. In Phase-II of the DARPA CSAC program, Symmetricom demonstrated a miniature atomic clock, ten times smaller and lower in power than any existing technology.

In Phase-III, Symmetricom will reduce size and power by an additional tenfold. This will reduce the size and power of the CSAC to a level comparable to low power quartz clocks, while improving accuracy and stability.

The objectives are to reduce the CSAC to sugar cube size operating on AA battery power.