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Atomic clocks offer a new market for VCSELs
This morning’s session on emerging VCSEL applications included a presentation that put the case for atomic clocks as a potential market for VCSELs. Currently these high-precision clocks feature a lamp that probes cesium or rubidium sources and ultimately provides timing with an accuracy onthe order of one part in 100 billion. However, this lamp also makes these clocks bulky and inefficient, weaknesses that Darwin Serkland of Sandia National Laboratories said can be addressed with VCSELs.
He says that the market for these devices could be worth several million dollars annually. Atomic clock sales that are used for communications timing applications such as GPS total in excess of 10,000 per year.
However, to enter this market the VCSELs will need to hit some tough specifications.
These include line width of less than 50 MHz, a power consumption below 2 mW, a lifetime over 5 years, and a price of $50 or less.
And getting a high manufacturing yield for these devices could prove tricky. Wavelength tolerances are very tight, and the typical variations in material composition and thickness that result from epitaxial growth could limit yield to 10%.
Serkland is working on some of these issues currently in conjunction with Symmetricom under funding from DARPA. The project is closing in on the project's targets for a timing device, which include a volume of less than 1 cm-3 and a power consumption below 30 mW.
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