![]() So far, the NIST team has built, on a lilliputian scale, the part of an atomic clock that accepts a high-frequency oscillation from another part of the clock and compares it to a natural electromagnetic frequency of atoms of a specific element. Today’s smallest atomic clock takes up as much space as a cigarette pack and can’t run on battery power (SN: 9/9/95, p. Several DARPA-supported teams, including Kitching’s, are pursuing the goal of building a sugar-cube-size atomic clock that could run off the power equivalent of a single AA battery. The organization is pushing the development of tiny atomic clocks that could be cheaply mass-produced using techniques akin to those employed by makers of microelectronics. The NIST team built its prototype with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For instance atomic clock–based GPS receivers would be less vulnerable than existing models to barrages of radio waves that enemies use to jam navigation instruments.Īlthough civilian payoffs are less obvious, better synchronization between networked computers and helping prevent eavesdropping on cell phone conversations might create markets for the diminutive atomic clocks, says Kitching. Military planners foresee a boon from developing atomic replacements for quartz timekeepers. However, the frequencies of those oscillations vary much more over time and with temperature fluctuations than do frequencies of atomic clocks. ![]() Many portable electronic items already contain on-chip clocks regulated by oscillations of quartz crystals. “This is an important demonstration of a critical component for use in a chip-scale atomic clock,” comments Christopher R.
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