The research groups of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ricoh Co., Ltd., and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have succeeded in developing a small atomic clock with low power consumption, which was not possible before.
An atomic clock is a clock that uses the resonance phenomenon between atoms and electromagnetic waves, and is more accurate than a general clock equipped with a crystal oscillator.Therefore, at present, the time is obtained by using a large atomic clock as the time reference and synchronizing the crystal oscillator with it, but if the atomic clock can be miniaturized and used as a substitute for the crystal oscillator, it will be a big technology. It is believed that a target and social change can be obtained.
However, the conventional atomic clock having a resonator that irradiates an atom with microwaves has a problem that the size is determined by the size of the resonator and cannot be miniaturized.In addition, since each component of an atomic clock such as a frequency synthesizer is required to have extremely high accuracy, it is difficult to reduce the power consumption, and as a result, the power consumption of the entire atomic clock becomes as high as several hundred mW. rice field.
On the other hand, the atomic clock developed this time has been able to reduce the size of the atomic clock, which used to be several hundred kilograms, by more than an order of magnitude by utilizing the phenomenon of coherent population trapping.In addition, the frequency synthesizer was built with a CMOS integrated circuit, and a new quantum unit package structure with improved temperature control efficiency was adopted, resulting in a significant reduction in power consumption.As a result, we have achieved a low power consumption of 10mW and an extremely small size of 60㎤, while having almost the same accuracy as a conventional large atomic clock (about 15 times that of a clock equipped with a crystal oscillator).
The results of this research will enable the mounting of atomic clocks on various devices such as automobiles, smartphones, and small satellites, which have been difficult to mount, and will greatly accelerate the realization of autonomous driving, highly accurate positioning, and new satellite networks. there is a possibility.
reference:[Tokyo Institute of Technology] Succeeded in developing an ultra-energy-saving, compact atomic clock
