Saisi Domestic Atomic Clocks: How Do They Power the Era of Internet of Everything with Unrivaled Precision?

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has recently conquered the world-class challenge of developing offshore reef limestone oilfields. Behind this breakthrough lies Saisi chip-scale atomic clocks, which deliver high-precision time and frequency support for its subsea exploration equipment. As a pinnacle of cutting-edge technology and a core strategic resource, Saisi’s full range of atomic clock products have become a precision cornerstone for critical sectors across land, sea and air.

1. From Astronomical Time to Atomic Time: Why Do We Need Atomic Clocks?

Before the advent of atomic clocks, human timekeeping evolved through three major stages: astronomical time determined by celestial observation, mechanical time from mechanical clocks, and crystal oscillator-governed quartz time. Each technological leap boosted time accuracy by a hundredfold. Nevertheless, traditional timekeeping methods have inherent limitations. Quartz clocks are susceptible to temperature and voltage fluctuations, with a daily time error of around one second; mechanical watches suffer even lower accuracy due to gravity, friction and other factors.

Such errors are negligible in daily life, yet they pose critical drawbacks for high-end technologies. In the new technological revolution driven by the Intelligent Internet of Everything, Digital Twin and large AI models, high-precision time signals have become indispensable. 5G base stations require microsecond-level synchronization to ensure smooth video transmission; 6G air-space-ground-sea integrated communications demand nanosecond-level time alignment; autonomous vehicles rely on nanosecond timestamps to fuse data from multiple sensors for safe obstacle avoidance; and thousands of satellites in global satellite internet constellations also depend on precise time coordination.

2. The Rise of Saisi

Through in-depth integration of industry, academia, research and application, Saisi has broken through technical barriers. Over a decade, we have built a complete industrial chain covering chip design, packaging & testing, mass production and market promotion, and launched a portfolio of atomic clock products and solutions with world-leading key performance indicators.

(1) Full in-house R&D, leading core technologies

The performance of an atomic clock is 70% determined by its core components. Saisi has achieved technological edge via independent development across the entire product chain.

(2) Compact, low-power chip-scale atomic clocks for lightweight scenarios

Conventional atomic clocks feature high precision but suffer from prominent pain points: large size, high power consumption and slow startup, which restrict their deployment in lightweight devices such as satellites, 5G base stations and UAVs.

Adopting the Coherent Population Trapping (CPT) principle and MEMS technology, Saisi’s self-developed chip-scale atomic clocks shrink the volume of traditional atomic clocks from dozens of cubic centimeters to the size of a matchbox, with power consumption reduced to 130 mW, while maintaining frequency stability at ≤1.0E-10. This innovation transforms atomic clocks from bulky laboratory equipment into standard components for the Internet of Everything, and directly underpinned CNOOC’s landmark achievement in offshore reef limestone oilfield development.

(3) Strong environmental adaptability for diverse application scenarios

Against the backdrop of the Internet of Everything, Saisi has launched rubidium atomic clocks and chip-scale atomic clocks tailored for satellites, aerospace, subsea exploration, finance & securities, smart power grids, IoT and other fields. Featuring high-temperature resistant, pressure-proof and anti-corrosion packaging, our products maintain stable operation in environments ranging from -40°C to +80°C. Equipped with standardized electrical and mechanical interfaces for seamless integration into existing systems, they are now widely deployed in high-standard scenarios including 5G base stations, CNOOC deep-sea facilities and financial trading systems.

(4) From standalone devices to integrated systems: the invisible backbone of the digital age

Beyond high-precision atomic clock hardware, Saisi delivers end-to-end system-level solutions including time servers and time & frequency testing equipment. We leverage self-developed FPGA time holding & time synchronization algorithms, professional hardware design, customized software development, as well as large-scale time-frequency networking and management capabilities.

Looking ahead, the race for higher precision in atomic clocks will intensify alongside the rapid development of emerging fields such as quantum computing, deep space exploration and low-earth-orbit satellite internet. Saisi has established strategic partnerships with leading enterprises across industries. We will keep optimizing product environmental adaptability and reliability, expand the application scope of atomic clocks in quantum communication, autonomous driving and other frontier areas, and continue to consolidate the fundamental time infrastructure for the digital future.