Tiny Atomic Clock
Just saw (via Slashdot) this news release about a new "chip scale" Cs standard. The physics package is about the size of a grain of rice, and the whole thing is the size of a modern OCXO. Initial stability is about 1x10e-10, but they think it'll improve significantly from that.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/miniclock.htm
73,
John
Hi John:
It's cool. There is a major project in the U.S. military to develop a
small and inexpensive clock. There are a number of companies working on
both Cs and Rb versions. Note that the SINCGARs and Have Quick mil
radios use frequency hopping, not for security, but for anti jam and
anti DF reasons, and now use GPS receivers to set the clock in each
radio. If the radios had good clocks they would not need to be set so
often. This application also requires low power to keep the clock
running. So my guess is that these frequency standards are targeted for
this application.
Have Fun,
Brooke Clarke, N6GCE
--
http://www.PRC68.com
http://www.pacificsites.com/~brooke/PRC68COM.shtml
http://www.precisionclock.com
John Ackermann N8UR wrote:
Just saw (via Slashdot) this news release about a new "chip scale" Cs
standard. The physics package is about the size of a grain of rice,
and the whole thing is the size of a modern OCXO. Initial stability
is about 1x10e-10, but they think it'll improve significantly from that.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/miniclock.htm
73,
John
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This project has been around for years. Even though
it uses cesium, it is more similar to traditional rb
standards than cesium beam standards; ie it is NOT a
primary standard. They are using different physics
to eliminate the size restrictions of a microwave cavity
that have limited the size of rb standards. It isn't
clear how this thing is going to be accurate without
ovenization.
Rick Karlquist
-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces@febo.com]On
Behalf Of John Ackermann N8UR
Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:38 AM
To: time-nuts@febo.com
Subject: [time-nuts] Tiny Atomic Clock
Just saw (via Slashdot) this news release about a new "chip
scale" Cs standard. The physics package is about the size of a
grain of rice, and the whole thing is the size of a modern OCXO.
Initial stability is about 1x10e-10, but they think it'll improve
significantly from that.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/miniclock.htm
73,
John
time-nuts mailing list
time-nuts@febo.com
https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
In message MGEKKFGEAIKJOOPJPGIKMEHEEHAA.richard@karlquist.com, "Richard (Ric
k) Karlquist (N6RK)" writes:
This project has been around for years. Even though
it uses cesium, it is more similar to traditional rb
standards than cesium beam standards; ie it is NOT a
primary standard. They are using different physics
to eliminate the size restrictions of a microwave cavity
that have limited the size of rb standards. It isn't
clear how this thing is going to be accurate without
ovenization.
Actually from their published data it seems that frequency drift
is their worst problem right now.
It's important to realize that their goal is to get OCXO like
performance at lower power, they are not aiming at atomic performance.
--
Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
Group,
Have finally put together a rack of equipment to generate
and monitor precision time. Nothing is running yet, but a
Minnesota winter is long. There are many details to sort out
before it all works properly.
The standards are a Datum 4040A Cesium telco box, an HP
5065 Rubidium unit and a Tracor 308A Rubidium unit.
The references are a pair of HP Z3801 receivers with HP
antennas on a mast outside. They both work and talk to
laptops. There's also a Fluke 207-1 and a Spectracom WWVB
receiver/comparator.
Three Datum 9310 time code generators will act as clock
displays, after some details are worked out.
The latest problem is that I have a manual for the Datum
4040B, not the A. It mentions monitor software (a DOS
program) for the B which is filled with information and
possible commands. The 4040A has no front panel controls.
Does anybody have any experience with the 4040A or B?
How about the monitor software?
Regards,
Bill Hawkins