Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro PN&T)
Abstract
The Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PN&T) program is developing low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP+C) inertial sensors and timing sources. This suite of sensors, when integrated into an inertial measurement unit (IMU), will enable self-contained navigation and timing in the absence of signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS), due to environmental interference or adversary action such as GPS jamming. The Micro-PNT program is developing miniature high performance gyroscopes, accelerometers, and clocks, based on both solid state and atomic technologies. Advanced micro-fabrication techniques under development will enable the fabrication of a single package containing all the necessary devices in a volume the size of a sugar cube. The small SWaP+C of these technologies will enable ubiquitous guidance and navigation on all platforms, including guided munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and individual soldiers. The successful realization of Micro-PN&T requires the development of new microfabrication processes and novel material systems for fundamentally different sensing modalities, understanding of the error sources at the micro-scale, and development of micro-scale systems for sensors based on atomic physics techniques. Innovative 3-D microfabrication techniques under development will allow co-fabrication of dissimilar devices on a single chip, such that clocks, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and calibration stages can be integrated into a small, low power architecture. The program is developing miniature atomic clocks, based on laser-cooled neutral atoms and trapped ions as well as inertial sensors based on atomic interferometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. Applied research for this program is funded within PE 0602716E, Project ELT-01.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2015
- Source ID
- 8552690a66c3c01ea40de5356bbc5b78