Miniature High Performance Atomic Clock for Space Applications

ABSTRACT: The Global Positioning System (GPS) has become an essential part of military, and numerous civilian, systems. It is widely used in diverse applications, including timekeeping and position location. Despite its success and usefulness, the present GPS system is not capable of fully satisfying the emerging needs of future military and civilian applications, owing to emergence of advanced technologies and architectures. For these advanced applications, improved timekeeping and position location capabilities must be developed. In particular, the key to improved capabilities is high performance, compact precision atomic clocks (CPAC) with long-term stability of 1 x 10-16. Recent advances in atomic clock technology, based on the use of optical transition in atomic species has indeed led to demonstration of remarkable performance at 10-18 stability level. This level of stability more than meets the future needs of GPS, but unfortunately has been realized only in advanced metrological laboratories. The size, volume, and power requirements of these advanced clocks are far beyond the constraints imposed by capacity of GPS vehicles. Furthermore, the underlying technologies require advanced equipment such as high performance lasers at wavelengths that are beyond the reach of commercial availability. It is clear that a suitable clock capable of reliable operation in space vehicles must be based on a radically new approach. BENEFIT: OEwaves has a successful history in transitioning results of R & D and bringing products to the marketplace. The need for miniature optical clocks, based on the ultra-stable microresonator developed during current effort, with small power consumption and inexpensive packages extends beyond fundamental science. The clocks are desirable practically for any navigation platform. They also would improve secure communication capabilities. This broader academic and commercial market will increase the volume of the manufacturing base, supplying Government with commercial off-the-shelf products that meet their needs at lower unit cost. Potential customers include: Federal government (DoD, NASA, NOAA, NIST) Defense contractors Communications system vendors Academic laboratories Test equipment vendors