[time-nuts] Re: Materials for a Rubidium Standard

[Bob Camp]

Hi

It is not uncommon for outfits to make some of the parts themselves. Not everybody
makes the same decisions, but they all do a fair amount of “local fab” on this or that. 
They also may custom tool “captive” sources for some parts. 

Next up is the simple issue of bulk buying. When you are buying a thousand parts a 
month for years, you get a *much* better deal than somebody going out to buy one
or two pieces. Indeed, a lot of OEM’s won’t even return your emails unless you are buying
above some "may thousands of dollars worth a year” kind of level.

There really isn’t a lot of market for some of these parts at retail ( Digikey, Mouser ….). 
That also makes finding a purchasing channel a bit fun. eBay is an alternative, however
you often really don’t know what you are getting.

Best guess:

That very basic Telecom Rb you see on eBay for $120 likely sells in high volume $800 
brand new.In low volume it may be $1500. The BOM probably is above $300, even for the guy 
making them in volume. That’s on a simple device with nothing exotic (like lasers) in it.  If the 
BOM goes up by 2 to 4X as you go to “one piece” that’s not totally out of the likely range. 

Bob

> On Aug 28, 2023, at 6:40 PM, Leo Ahluwalia via time-nuts <time-nuts at lists.febo.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi, I've been looking online at the parts to build a rubidium standard and
> I've noticed that there are a lot of standards which are much cheaper than
> buying the parts individually from different sellers (for example, a
> rubidium vapor cell can be found for around 50 bucks while I can also find
> a standard for 300$). I understand that these companies have specialized
> equipment and procedures for the production of these clocks, but I was
> wondering if someone knew where I might be able to get my hands on cheaper
> parts for building a standard (such as the microwave oscillator or rubidium
> lamp/laser)
> 
> Thanks, Leo
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