Integrable timing on silicon wafer supporting CubeSats-based Communications, Navigation and Radio Science

The paper presents the effort of embedding precision timing into silicon integrated chip platforms in the context of CubeSats-based communications, navigation, and radio science missions. The paper also discusses the fabrication and characterization of a terahertz silicon micromachined waveguide, which will serve as the gas cell inside the chip-scale molecular clocks (CSMCs) previously developed by the MIT team. This technology is a critical step for CSMCs to be feasibly integrable into aerospace electronic systems for CubeSats missions.本论文阐述了面向基于立方体卫星（CubeSats）的通信、导航与射电科学任务，将精密计时功能集成至硅基集成芯片平台的相关研究工作。本文同时探讨了太赫兹硅微加工波导的制备与表征流程，该波导将作为此前由麻省理工学院（MIT）团队研发的芯片级分子钟（CSMCs）内部的气室。此项技术是实现芯片级分子钟可切实集成至立方体卫星任务航天电子系统的关键步骤。