The integrated swiss miniature atomic clock

The detailed design of the Swiss Miniature Atomic Clock (Swiss-MAC) was presented by CSEM in 2012. This paper describes the progress made in the meantime towards the realization of the integrated Swiss-MAC, by presenting a first prototype showing preliminary but very promising performances.

I. Introduction

Miniature atomic clocks (MACs), typically based on the coherent population trapping scheme (CPT) [1], show the promise of having miniature and low-power mW) portable microwave frequency standards [2]. The Swiss-MAC was designed to target such state of the art specifications. The current prototype integrates most of the desired functionalities, except the vacuum encapsulation of the physics package and the integrated temperature regulation of the atomic vapor cell. The prototype (Fig. 1) is powered by a separate PCB equipped with a battery pack and different monitoring and debugging inputs/outputs. The main PCB has a dimension of with 1/3^rd of its surface populated by jumpers and connectors. Fig. 1. Picture of the full Swiss-MAC prototype (caps removed).