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Dr. Lahav Gan, Dr. Or Peleg:
SSAC - Solid - State Atomic Clock on a Silicon CMOS Chip
DESCRIPTION
Today, there is tremendous pressure to shrink the size, reduce
the price and lower the power consumption of applications
in the consumer electronics market. As a result, the trend in
this market is to move to system-on-chip (SoC) solutions. SoC
integrates the whole electronic circuit on a single silicon chip;
a GPS-enabled digital camera, for example, requires small, low
cost, and low-power GPS on a chip. Currently, the only component
which can not be integrated into the chip is a high-accuracy
clock (oscillator).
Dimension4 (D4) develops solid-state atomic clock technology
based on a solid-state crystal, rather than gas as in conventional
atomic clocks. D4’s proprietary technology enables the simple
integration of an oscillator in SoC applications. D4’s solid-state
atomic clock features relatively high-frequency stability and accuracy,
low cost, millimeter dimensions, micro-power, and SoC
compatibility. D4 intends to deliver the first solid-state atomic
clock on a silicon chip to the market.
INNOVATION
Dimension4‘s solid-state atomic clock generates highly accurate
clock frequencies by utilizing energy transitions in solid-state
crystal in a similar manner to gas-based atomic clocks. Using
solid-state material and employing conventional CMOS processes
makes it possible to fully fabricate millimeter-size, low
power, and low-priced atomic clock on silicon chips.
TARGET MARKET
The D4 solution addresses the markets for SoC solutions and
high-end crystal oscillators, including fields such as GPS, FemtoCells
(cellular home base stations), mobile TV, IPTV, 3G cellular
applications, military communications, and general telecommunications.
These markets have shown tremendous growth in
the last couple of years and it are expected to reach more than
USD 1.5 billion in 2010.
CUSTOMER BENEFIT
The D4 solution will offer SoC developers the opportunity to incorporate
highly accurate clocks into their integrated circuit designs.
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Si CMOS manufacturing process
Low cost ( ← USD 5)
High-frequency accuracy
( ← 0.1ppm)
Miniature size ( ← 0.1cm3)
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Low power consumption
( ← 50mW)
Solid-state durability |
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