[time-nuts] New design of Cesium tube ?

[Bill Janssen]

The MAy 2005 issue of IEEE Spectrum has a short article about a new design
of a Cesium standard. The inventor is John Kitching of NIST.

The claim is this new design will be less expensive and smaller than the 
existing design.
I have included a couple of quotes from the article

"Right now the cesium-vapor chamber takes up a few cubic millimeters. Throw
in the laser, the optics and the electronics and were up to maybe a 
cubic centimeter."

"Besides being cheap, the new atomic clocks will also be frugal with power"

So maybe when the existing Cesium standards wear out they can be replaced
with a new and cheaper one. I might even be able to afford a new one :-)

Bill K7NOM