Enhanced Quantum rubidium miniature atomic clock for tough environments

Latest from Microsemi is the enhanced Quantum rubidium miniature atomic clock (MAC) SA.3X family. One of the industry’s smallest, lightest and highest-performing MACs, the enhanced Quantum MAC SA.3X family is based on proprietary coherent population trapping (CPT) technology. The MAC SA.3X family meets all traditional, broad market frequency reference application needs, says the company. Featuring excellent mechanical robustness and temperature performance, the Microsemi Quantum rubidium MAC SA.3X family is only 25 percent of the volume of the nearest competing clock in the same category. This small size, combined with its very low power consumption, makes the SA.3x series ideal for a broad variety of platforms that mount directly on printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA), eliminating the need for a heat sink or fan. “Microsemi has a history of investing in low power atomic clock technology, which has resulted in innovative timing solutions capable of solving challenging technical issues in such key vertical markets as communications and defence,” said Ramki Ramakrishnan, director of product management, Microsemi. “We designed the Quantum MAC SA.3X family specifically to meet essential frequency accuracy and stability requirements in applications that include wireless base stations, wire line network infrastructure, defense systems and test and measurement instruments. These types of systems can benefit from the low-power Quantum MAC SA. 3X that provides the ability to operate across a wide range of temperatures.” The Quantum Rubidium MAC family delivers superior holdover accuracy over extended time periods, exceeding all wireless LTE base station and mission-critical defence infrastructure requirements. The MAC-SA.3x will meet the LTE holdover requirements for several days, a significant feature. This innovative capability far exceeds conventional quartz-based oscillators, which only meet holdover requirements for a few hours at most. This critical difference results in an improved mitigation solution during periods of GNSS vulnerabilities caused by jamming and outage, says the company.