ADVA unveils market’s first high-performance optical cesium clock

30 June 2022

News summary:

OSA 3300-HP will be key for delivering the resilience and accuracy required for PNT assurance in critical infrastructure
Service providers harnessing the solution can now offer GNSS/GPS- backup-as-a-service (GBaaS) with enhanced precision and availability
Solution answers stringent timing demands of metrology, 5G, utilities, transportation, defense, data centers and cable networks

ADVA (FSE: ADV) today achieved an industry first with the introduction of its Oscilloquartz high-performance optical cesium atomic clock. The coreSync™ OSA 3300-HP is ADVA’s latest innovation in assured PNT, ushering in a new age of precise synchronization with unprecedented stability. Following ADVA’s launch of the first optical pumping timing solution two years ago, the OSA 3350 ePRC+, the OSA 3300-HP takes the technology to new levels. It has a 10-year lifetime compared to the five years offered by currently available high-performance magnetic clocks. As the market’s only high-performance optical cesium clock, the OSA 3300-HP sets a new benchmark for precision and availability, providing the resilience required for PNT assurance in critical infrastructure and empowering service providers to deliver differentiated SLA timing offerings with integrated GNSS backup. The feature-rich device has embedded Ethernet- and IP-based management as well as a user-friendly touchscreen GUI.

“The launch of our coreSync™ OSA 3300-HP marks a key milestone in the design of atomic frequency and phase standards. After many years of extensive work in our Swiss laboratories supported by the European Space Agency, we now have a mature, state-of-the-art technology that enables a major leap in the accuracy and stability of network timing while providing a substantially longer lifetime,” said Gil Biran, GM of Oscilloquartz, ADVA. ”From 5G mobile services to mission-critical defense applications, our OSA 3300-HP will be a truly disruptive enhancement of our aPNT+™ technology. And what makes its arrival so significant is that it comes at a moment when existing synchronization solutions in fixed, wireless and cable networks are being stretched to the limit, while the threat of GNSS cyberattacks also continues to grow. Across a wide range of industries, our high-performance cesium atomic clock will meet new timing demands, create new value and open up new possibilities for PNT assurance in critical infrastructure.”

Industrializing optical pumping techniques was widely considered to be impossible. But that’s what our team has achieved.
Patrick Berthoud, time and frequency chief scientist at Oscilloquartz, ADVA

Atomic clocks offer the ultimate synchronization backup for networks that rely on GNSS-based timing, combining high accuracy with outstanding availability. Offering performance that far exceeds best-in-class magnetic cesium devices, the OSA 3300-HP is the industry’s first commercial high-performance optical cesium atomic clock. Featuring an all-digital design, it leverages optical-pumping techniques using laser diodes. This enables it to measure 100 times the number of atoms, making it radically more efficient compared to existing primary reference clock (PRC) technologies. Its product lifespan is 100% longer than competing high-performance magnetic cesium clocks; the OSA 3300-HP delivers optimum stability for over 10 years. What’s more, further to the launch of the OSA 3300-HP, ADVA is also announcing a dual-purpose enhancement of its OSA 3350 ePRC+. Now, as well as providing phase holdover as part of ePRTC systems, it can be utilized as a free-running frequency source with enhanced standard performance.

“What we’ve accomplished with our optical cesium atomic clock solutions is more than incremental innovation. Industrializing optical pumping techniques was widely considered to be impossible. But that’s what our team has achieved. Now, we’re taking precision timing to the next level, empowering networks with nanosecond accuracy and phenomenal stability,” commented Patrick Berthoud, time and frequency chief scientist at Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “As well as meeting new sync requirements, our OSA 3300-HP will help simplify operations with its easy-to-use GUI for intuitive configuration and operation. These devices will support advances in a host of different technology fields. Able to meet the most demanding applications in data centers, financial networks, smart grids, transportation, metrology, scientific research and more, they will also be a foundation for future innovation as we continue to expand the boundaries of possibility for accuracy and stability.”