GINC Critical Technology
Sensing, Timing & Navigation

Precision Timing & Atomic Clocks

The capacity to keep and distribute time at precision, atomic clocks, timing networks and the national time base on which navigation, communications, finance and power all silently depend.

Capability group
Sensing, Timing & Navigation
Domain
Critical Technology · Hard Power
Identifier
factbase.org/cap/SB73WYFP05
Reference
Atomic clock Wikipedia

Papers

1.9k

2020–2024

Paper growth

+54%

2020–24 on 2015–19

Patent families

6.2k

2020–2024

Filed abroad

23%

families in more than one office

In the framework

What the capability covers and what it leaves to others, and the indicators it will be measured by.

Bounds

Covers timing technology and the national timing capacity; the systems that consume it belong to their own domains, and holdover under satellite denial is the capability's hardest test.

Lineage

Carried from v0.0 (formerly Atomic clocks) with the same identifier; recast from a device definition to the national timing capacity, the device being the indicator.

Indicators

  • research publication share in time and frequencyResearch
  • national timing infrastructure with holdover capabilityPending
  • clock accuracy records heldPending

Research

Papers classified to the capability, by year and by the nation of their authors' institutions, 2020–2024. Read from the v0.0 research topic Atomic clocks.

Papers by year

The five leading nations, papers by year

Share of papers, 2020–2024

Of papers with a known author nation; 47% have none and are left out.

  1. 1China23.3%281 papers
  2. 2United States17.6%212 papers
  3. 3Germany9.8%118 papers
  4. 4France5.6%67 papers
  5. 5United Kingdom5.2%63 papers
  6. 6Russia4.5%54 papers
  7. 7India3.9%47 papers
  8. 8Japan3.1%38 papers
  9. 9Italy2.9%35 papers
  10. 10Australia2.9%35 papers

Leading institutions, 2020–2024

By fractional count: each paper divided among its authors' institutions.

  1. 1Chinese Academy of Sciences32fractional papers
  2. 2Peking University27fractional papers
  3. 3National Time Service Center22fractional papers
  4. 4National Institute of Standards and Technology22fractional papers
  5. 5Leibniz University Hannover17fractional papers
  6. 6Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt17fractional papers
  7. 7University of Colorado Boulder15fractional papers
  8. 8Huazhong University of Science and Technology13fractional papers
  9. 9University of Chinese Academy of Sciences13fractional papers
  10. 10Systèmes de Référence Temps-Espace8fractional papers

Patents

Patent families by the nation of origin of their applicants and their earliest priority year, from the CPC and IPC classes the capability is read from. 2025 onwards is incomplete: families are published 18 months after priority.

Families by priority year

The five leading origins, families by year

1,733 applicants filed here in 2015–2024; the five largest held 15% of families (HHI 80 of 10,000: unconcentrated).

Share of families by origin, 2020–2024

  1. 1China76.6%4,757 families
  2. 2United States8.6%532 families
  3. 3Japan4.2%264 families
  4. 4South Korea2.0%126 families
  5. 5Germany2.0%124 families
  6. 6Israel1.0%62 families
  7. 7Sweden0.8%52 families
  8. 8Taiwan0.7%43 families
  9. 9France0.6%37 families
  10. 10Finland0.6%35 families

Applicants filing most internationally, 2015–2024

Families filed in more than one office, by applicant as the offices name them.

  1. 1HUAWEI TECH CO LTD296international families
  2. 2ZTE CORP114international families
  3. 3SEIKO EPSON CORP80international families
  4. 4ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M78international families
  5. 5QUALCOMM INC53international families
  6. 6MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP50international families
  7. 7NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE43international families
  8. 8INTEL CORP39international families
  9. 9BOSCH GMBH ROBERT33international families
  10. 10SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD33international families

Classification read

  • G04F5/14 Atomic clocks · 4.7k documents
  • H03L7/26 Atomic frequency standards · 3.4k documents
  • H01S1/00 Masers · 3.3k documents
  • H04J3/0635 Clock and time synchronisation across networks · 77.6k documents
  • G04G7/00 Synchronisation of electronic timepieces · 3.5k documents

Shares inventions with

Capabilities whose classes the same families also fall in, by overlap (Jaccard).

Companies

50 companies in this capability, across 6 regions. The leading 12:

  1. 1Microchip TechnologyThrough its former Microsemi/Symmetricom frequency and time business it makes the 5071A cesium standard, the SA.45s chip-scale atomic clock, space rubidium clocks, hydrogen masers and TimeProvider grandmasters, and acquired Tekron in 2020.Manufacture
  2. 2SafranSafran Electronics & Defense's timing unit (ex-Orolia, Spectratime and T4Science) supplies rubidium clocks and passive hydrogen masers for Galileo and NavIC, plus ground hydrogen masers and resilient PNT timing servers.Manufacture
  3. 3LeonardoLeonardo's Nerviano site builds the passive hydrogen masers and rubidium atomic frequency standards flown on every Galileo satellite.Manufacture
  4. 4Excelitas TechnologiesSupplies the space-qualified rubidium atomic frequency standards used on GPS satellites and offered to other GNSS programmes.Manufacture
  5. 5L3Harris TechnologiesBuilds the navigation payloads, including the mission data unit and atomic-clock timekeeping system, for GPS III and GPS IIIF satellites.Design
  6. 6Frequency ElectronicsMakes space and military rubidium standards, hydrogen masers and ultra-stable quartz oscillators for satellites, GPS and US defence programmes.Manufacture
  7. 7HuaweiThe largest international patent applicant in this field, mostly on clock synchronisation (IEEE 1588 PTP, SyncE) for telecom and 5G networks that distribute national time.Integration
  8. 8China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)Its institutes, including the Lanzhou Institute of Space Technology Physics, develop the rubidium clocks and hydrogen masers for BeiDou satellites, and CASC builds the BeiDou constellation.Manufacture
  9. 9China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC)Its 203 Institute (Beijing Institute of Radio Metrology and Measurement) developed the super-thin rubidium clocks central to BeiDou timing and runs national time-frequency metrology.Research
  10. 10Chengdu Spaceon ElectronicsA CETC-affiliated company and China's main commercial atomic-clock maker, it supplies the space-borne rubidium clock physics package for BeiDou-3 and makes ground rubidium and time-frequency systems.Manufacture
  11. 11Adtran Holdings (Oscilloquartz)Its Swiss unit Oscilloquartz (Neuchâtel) makes optical cesium clocks, PTP grandmasters and timing networks used by telecom operators and national timing infrastructures.Manufacture
  12. 12Seiko EpsonOne of the world's largest makers of crystal oscillators and timing devices (TCXO/OCXO) and a top patent applicant in this field.Manufacture
All 50 in the Companies table →