Chip-Scale Molecular Clock
Name
Molecular_Clock_JSSC_final.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
5.38 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
62f34bdabe9600545f7467ba1327404f
Author(s)
Wang, Cheng
Yi, Xiang
Mawdsley, James
Kim, Mina
Hu, Zhi
Zhang, Yaqing
Perkins, Bradford
Han, Ruonan
Date Issued
2019
Journal
IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
© 1966-2012 IEEE. An ultra-stable time-keeping device is presented, which locks its output clock frequency to the rotational-mode transition of polar gaseous molecules. Based on a high-precision spectrometer in the sub-terahertz (THz) range, our new clocking scheme realizes not only fully electronic operation but also implementations using mainstream CMOS technology. Meanwhile, the small wavelength of probing wave and high absorption intensity of our adopted molecules (carbonyl sulfide, 16 O 12 C 32 S) also enable miniaturization of the gas cell. All these result in an 'atomic-clock-grade' frequency reference with small size, power, and cost. This paper provides the architectural and chip-design details of the first proof-of-concept molecular clock using a 65-nm CMOS bulk technology. Using a 231.061-GHz phase-locked loop (PLL) with frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation and a sub-THz FET detector with integrated lock-in function, the chip probes the accurate transition frequency of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) gas inside a single-mode waveguide, and accordingly adjusts the 80-MHz output of a crystal oscillator. The clock consumes only 66 mW of dc power and has a measured Allan deviation of 3.8 × 10 10 at an averaging time of τ =1000s.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Lincoln Laboratory
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.2018.2880920
