Symmetricom Wins $3.4 Million in Funding for Chip Scale Atomic Clock
Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) of Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) awards funding to develop ultra-miniature atomic
clock. San Jose, CA (PRWEB via PR Web
Direct) August 23, 2005 -- Symmetricom, Inc. (NASDAQ:
SYMM), a worldwide leader in precise time and
frequency products and services, today announced that it has been
awarded funding for Phase-III of the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) Chip Scale Atomic Clock
(CSAC) program. The CSAC development will produce miniature, low power
atomic clocks for precision timing applications in hand-held
battery-powered instrumentation for use by military
personnel. Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb275764.htm
Under the award, valued at $3.4 million, Symmetricom
will develop miniature low power atomic clocks
based on its proprietary coherent population trapping (CPT) atomic
interrogation technology and microelectromechanical systems (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 CSAC development. The CSAC
work leverages Symmetricom's extensive expertise as the world's largest
and most diverse producer of atomic
clocks.
Tom Steipp, CEO of Symmetricom commented, “I am
delighted to acknowledge the accomplishments of our technical team at
Symmetricom. They have successfully met the DARPA milestones in Phase I
and II and have now been selected to carry the CSAC development 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-based technologies. However, the size and power
consumption of existing atomic clock
technologies exceeds that of quartz-based clocks by several hundred-fold, which has
heretofore prevented the deployment of atomic timing in portable
applications. Existing miniature atomic
clocks, for example, occupy a volume similar to a deck of playing
cards and 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 further reduce the size and power by an
additional tenfold. This work will reduce the size and power of the CSAC
to a level comparable to low power quartz clocks while improving accuracy
and stability by a factor of 10 to 100. The objectives are to reduce the
CSAC to a size comparable to a sugar cube while operating on the power
of a AA battery.
Within the US Department of Defense (DoD), the
use of miniature, low power precision timing references such as CSAC will
enable a new generation of man-portable instrumentation for positioning,
navigation, and communications. Ultra-stable frequency references will
dramatically improve the bandwidth and reliability of secure military
communications. In military Global Position
System (GPS) receivers, stable time sources will enable robust
acquisition and position determination in a jammed environment. Small, low
power precision timing sources will also enhance munitions guidance,
identification of friend or foe, as well as collection and dissemination
of information on the battlefield.
For more information please
visit: www.atomic-clock.symmttm.com.
About Symmetricom,
Inc.
As a worldwide leader in precise time and frequency products and
services, Symmetricom provides “Perfect Timing” to customers around the
world, including communication service providers, network equipment
manufacturers, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), aerospace contractors,
enterprises, governments and research facilities. Since 1985, the
company's timing, frequency and synchronization solutions have helped
define the world's standards, delivering precision, reliability and
efficiency to wireless and wireline networks, instrumentation and testing
applications and network time management. Deployed in more than 90
countries, instrumentation products include atomic
clocks, cesium and rubidium
standards, VME, VXI, crystal oscillators,
Bus Timing, PCI cards and Global
Positioning System (GPS) solutions for instrumentation applications,
alphanumeric displays, as well as network time servers for Network Time
Protocol (NTP) synchronization and time synchronization solutions. In
2002, Symmetricom acquired TrueTime and Datum, enhancing its position in
the world time and frequency markets. Symmetricom is based in San Jose,
Calif., with offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.symmetricom.com
Contacts:
Raychel
Marcotte
BroadPR
617-645-6022
Jeanne
Hopkins
Symmetricom
978-232-1487
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