Power dissipation in a vertically integrated chip-scale atomic clock

Published

August 24, 2004

Author(s)

John Kitching, Svenja A. Knappe, Li-Anne Liew, P Schwindt, V Shah, John Moreland, Leo W. Hollberg

Abstract

The physics package of a vertically-integrated chip-scale atomic clock based on Cs has recently been demonstrated at NIST. This device requires 69 mW of electrical power to maintain the vapor cell 34 K above the temperature of the baseplate. The physics package structure is analyzed using analytical thermal modeling and finite-element calculation. Improvements to the design are proposed to reduce the power consumption of the physics package alone to below 15 mW and of a full chip-scale atomic clock to below approximately 30 mW. Power consumption at this level will open the door to the use of atomic frequency references in portable, battery-operated applications such as wireless communications and global positioning.

Proceedings Title

Proc. IEEE Intl. Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Anniversary Joint Conf.

Conference Dates

August 24-27, 2004

Conference Location

Montreal, 1, CA

Conference Title

IEEE Intl. Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Conf.

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

atomic clock, compact frequency reference, MEMS, micromachining, VCSEL

Citation

Kitching, J. , Knappe, S. , Liew, L. , Schwindt, P. , Shah, V. , Moreland, J. and Hollberg, L. (2004), Power dissipation in a vertically integrated chip-scale atomic clock, Proc. IEEE Intl. Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Anniversary Joint Conf., Montreal, 1, CA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50085 (Accessed October 5, 2025)