![]() “I read a huge number of papers on silicon micromachining, a subject that I was not very familiar with. “During the period January-March 2001, I remember dropping absolutely everything else I was working on to focus on CSAC,” Kitching said. Two companies are selling commercial chip-scale atomic clocks, with at least some NIST influence. Today, the patent is in the public domain, which means it can be used without being licensed. This patent covers the invention of the chip-scale atomic clock, a spinoff chip-scale atomic magnetometer, and silicon micromachining of the vapor cell that contains the atoms in both devices. Patent 6,806,784 B2, “Miniature frequency standard based on all-optical excitation and a micro-machined containment vessel.” NIST filed the provisional patent on July 9, 2001, and the patent was issued on Oct. Kitching and Hollberg’s discussions with Tang made them aware of silicon micromachining, and they began to consider a new approach, which resulted in U.S. The NIST team began discussions with DARPA program manager Bill Tang. NIST managers eventually put Kitching and Hollberg in touch with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), which had funded the Westinghouse work. Kitching and Hollberg knew that Westinghouse Electric Corp. had demonstrated a miniature atomic clock using VCSELs. The original NIST devices had physics packages of a few square centimeters in volume and were based on glass-blown vapor cells and a type of semiconductor diode laser called vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). Researchers are now working on the next generation - chip-scale atomic clocks operating at higher frequencies and with potentially higher performance. These features are so useful that more than 100,000 commercial chip-scale units have been sold for a variety of applications, including oil and gas exploration and military equipment such as tamper-proof GPS receivers. The chip-scale versions are less precise but smaller and battery operated, about one-seventh the overall size and using about one-fiftieth as much power as their larger ancestors. an environment that generated interactions between government and industry.Ĭonventional compact atomic clocks, developed mainly for cellphone base stations, can be held in the palm of your hand.a decade of military funding for an R&D plan with specific milestones and.a lead researcher who is among NIST’s most prolific inventors.Many elements came together to bring the CSAC to a ready market: NIST has long been a leader in the development of atomic clocks, going back to the 1940s, and began supporting research on a chip-scale version more than 20 years ago. NIST’s chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) has it all: technology innovation, a patent, tech transfer, commercialization, sales, important real-world applications and even museum-level fame. Chip-Scale Bolometer and Related Technologies.Quantum Optics and Radiometry Expand or Collapse.Programmable Josephson Voltage Standards and Arbitrary Waveform Synthesizers.Tabletop Kibble Balance: Gram-Level Mass Realization.Mass, Force and Acceleration Expand or Collapse. ![]() On-Chip Measurements of Biofluids and Cells.Magnetic and Electric Fields Expand or Collapse. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |