Time and Frequency Laboratory Activities at RISE

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is since 2018 the result of a rebranding of SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden and several other national research facilities and test beds in Sweden. This also comprises most national metrology institute (NMI) activities, including time and frequency that is still located at its Boras facilities in the southwest of Sweden since 1995. UTC(SP) remains the official designation of the Swedish UTC(k) realization. It is realized in a classical master clock and phase stepper setup and is locally distributed to different users and time transfer applications. The most recent local clock ensemble consists of four hydrogen masers and three high performance 5071A Cs standards. UTC(SP) is linked to TAI using TWSTFT and GNSS. The primary link is a combination TWGPPP with current calibration uncertainties of 1.1 ns. The time scale is regularly kept within +/- 5 ns of UTC. RISE has also established several distributed UTC(SP) copies, with both local backups in Boras and facilities at remote sites linked together by GNSS time transfer. Network time distribution at those sites make UTC(SP) publicly available. Additionally, RISE offers several calibration services for the distribution of UTC-traceable time and frequency signals. Time and frequency related metrological research at RISE is mostly concentrated on further refinement of GNSS and TWSTFT methods, their calibration and the dissemination using those methods. We are also active in research on fiber based optical time and frequency transfer. Outside the metrological responsibilities, many research projects focus on establishing metrological aspects of time and frequency within for instance the automotive and maritime domain.