Virtually all electronic devices and systems built today rely on some sort of timing circuit or clock source to derive frequencies and synchronize events, whether they be used for dispatching data in the smallest of microprocessors or across switches in massive networks. For the better part of the last century, quartz technology has been at the foundation of these timing circuits, but building on its silicon innovations over the last decade, the just-announced SiTime Epoch Platform may change that.
SiTime, a leader in the precision timing market, just unveiled the Epoch Platform, which is a MEMS-based (Micro-electromechanical Systems), OCXO (Oven Controlled Oscillator) that significantly outperforms legacy solutions on multiple fronts, including stability, power, and semiconductor-level reliability. The Epoch Platform also offers a number of other advantages, including programmability and an ultra-small footprint. SiTime claims The Epoch Platform (9 mm x 7 mm x 3.73 mm) is roughly 9x smaller, with a 3X lower Z-Height, than competitive solutions.
The SiTime Epoch Platform Continues Disruption Of The Precision Timing Industry
“The release of Epoch Platform is a pivotal moment for SiTime and the electronics industry,” said Rajesh Vashist, CEO and chairman of SiTime. “For many years, customers lived with the shortcomings of existing timing technologies, because there were no viable alternatives. They compromised on real-world performance, reliability, and power, to name just a few.”
The SiTime Epoch Platform targets datacenter and network infrastructure equipment, where ultra-precision timing is paramount to maintain high network throughput and reliability. All nodes on a network are synchronized in time and must remain synchronized to consistently deliver high throughput. All nodes on a 5G networks, for example, must be synchronized to within hundreds of nanoseconds. SiTime Epoch Platform is ideally suited to ensure the accuracy and continuity of this synchronization.
Legacy Oven Controlled Oscillators (OCXO) are among the highest performing quartz-based class of oscillators, but SiTime’s Epoch Platform exceeds their capabilities in many ways. For example, the SiTime Epoch Platform can be programmed to any frequency between 10 and 220 MHz, with up to 6 decimal places of accuracy. It also offers 8 hours of holdover, with up to 12 hours of aging compensation. SiTime claims this level of performance is approximately 2x better than competing solutions in real-world environments.
Other features of the SiTime Epoch Platform include:
· ±1, ±3, ±5 ppb (parts per billion) frequency stability over temperature
· Highest operating temperature range: -40 to 95°C
· 2.5, 2.8, and 3.3 operating supply voltage
· 3X lower power: 420 mW
· 3X better ADEV under airflow: 5e-12 at 10 seconds averaging time
· 3X lower aging: ±0.1 ppb/day
· 2X faster time to stability – 60 seconds
· Digital control with 5E-14 resolution: I2C and SPI interfaces
SiTime Epoch Platform Is A Premium Solution
Over the course of a few conversations with executives from SiTime discussing Epoch, it appears the platform outperforms competitive solutions effectively across the board. In addition to the flexibility afforded by the programmable nature of the platform, Epoch is more accurate, offers better stability, operates at lower power, has a smaller footprint, and is more resilient in harsh environments. Although the SiTime Epoch Platform is a premium solution, when discussing potential customer engagements, it appears customer inertia is the only major barrier to entry.
CEO Rajesh Vashist also said, “SiTime’s Epoch Platform changes the game, delivering higher performance and reliability with lower power that was unavailable until now. These benefits are a result of a half-decade of engineering investment and a systems-based development approach that combines MEMS, analog, packaging and algorithms. Epoch, along with new products introduced since 2020, with more to come, will expand our communications and enterprise annual SAM to $1.3B by 2024. We believe precision timing will be a catalyst for innovation in all electronics and drive our future success.”
SiTime believes its Epoch Platform will open up a cumulative $2 billion serviceable addressable market (SAM) over the next decade, but the company isn’t stopping there. SiTime tells us technologies used in the Epoch Platform will be extended to other high-growth markets moving forward, such as aerospace and defense, industrial controls, and others.
Engineering samples of the SiT58xx Epoch Platform are available now for qualified customers, with wider, general availability coming in October. Volume production is expected to ramp in early 2024.
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