Symmetricom, Inc. has been awarded funding for Phase III of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) chip scale atomic clock (CSAC) program. The CSAC development will produce miniature, low-power atomic clocks for precision timing applications in hand-held battery-powered instrumentation for use by military personnel.

Under the award, valued at $3.4 million, Symmetricom will develop the clocks based on its proprietary coherent population trapping (CPT) atomic interrogation technology and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication techniques. Symmetricom is teamed with The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., and Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., in the CSAC development.

Tom Steipp, CEO of Symmetricom commented, "I am delighted to acknowledge the accomplishments of our technical team at Symmetricom. They have successfully met the DARPA milestones in Phase I and II and have now been selected to carry the CSAC development to completion. The size and power reductions will be critical elements to moving portable precision timing into the hands of U.S. soldiers."

In Phase III, Symmetricom will further reduce the size and power by an additional tenfold. This work will reduce the size and power of the CSAC to a level comparable to low power quartz clocks while improving accuracy and stability by a factor of 10 to 100.

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