[time-nuts] Symmetricom chip scale atomic clock
SAIDJACK at aol.com
SAIDJACK at aol.com
Thu Apr 24 20:50:57 UTC 2014
Hello everyone,
let me address the below claims and commentary which was posted without
first consulting with us.
Microsemi has recently seen a slightly higher failure rate of the CSAC
oscillators than expected. A small percentage of our customers have been
adversely affected by this issue. We have been, and will continue to take care
of this issue when it happens to units we sold by doing a warranty exchange
of the CSAC for the affected customer unit, even if it should fall out of
its normal warranty period.
We believe in supporting our customers to the maximum extent possible, and
of course want to deliver a product that has the highest level of quality
possible. That said, we must remember that the CSAC technology is a ground
breaking, never-before-done in commercial quantities, absolutely new type of
oscillator technology, and being at the forefront of such a technology
sometimes means there is a bit of a learning curve to deal with. This is one
of the main reasons why no one else in the world besides Microsemi makes
CSAC type products for commercial sale.
So all in all, if a customer unit should get affected by this problem then
the issue will be addressed by us and Microsemi with a quick turn around
and a "no questions asked" approach, and we hope that this approach sets us
positively apart from the competition.
Lastly, we received the below comments/explanation from Microsemi about
this issue which we have permission to share with you, and this should help
alleviate the problem for new orders.
Sincerely,
Said
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Some Symmetricom (now Microsemi) Chip Scale Atomic Clocks have shown a
failure mode that will manifest itself as an inability of the clock to achieve
atomic lock. If the CSAC’s telemetry string is monitored, the failure
mode will show up as a Status Level 8. Microsemi’s investigation into the
problem uncovered three distinct root causes, although the symptom the user
observes is always a Status Level 8, regardless of which root cause is the
underlying issue. It is important to note that all three root causes are
process issues, not design issues.
All three root causes have been addressed, and Microsemi is currently
producing CSAC’s with all three fixes implemented. A full re-qualification of
the CSAC is also being done, to ensure that the fixes are effective. CSAC’
s already in the field that exhibit this failure mode have been, and will
continue to be, replaced under warranty.
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In a message dated 4/24/2014 10:16:25 Pacific Daylight Time,
lester at veenstras.com writes:
Affected Products: Jackson Labs or Symmetricom time/frequency reference
boards based on Symmetricom chip scale atomic clock
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