SSAC – Solid – State Atomic Clock on a Silicon CMOS Chip

Dr Lahav Gan, Dr Or Peleg

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.

Contact:
Dr Lahav Gan
Dimension 4
Klil Hachoresh 11 /4
36870 Nesher
Israel
phone: +97 25 23 34 92 74
e-mail: lahavgan@gmail.com
www.D4-AC.com