Douglas R. Carlson

A Manufacturable Chip-Scale Atomic Clock

Several factors are converging to enable atomic clocks to be manufactured with very small dimensions and run at low operating power. MOEMS technology, high-speed vcsels, microelectronics, wafer-scale packaging, and the all-optical CPT method of exciting atomic transitions are key ingredients in the quest to make precision time-keeping devices with chip-scale dimensions. In this paper we report on the design and process that enable an atomic clock to be made with a total volume of 1.7 cm3, a total power budget of 57 mWatts, and an Allan Deviation at 1 hour of 5E-12.