Executive Summary
The demand for precise and reliable position, navigation, and timing (PNT) information has driven innovation in increasingly advanced measurement tools for centuries, and the importance of these systems in today’s highly interconnected, technology-dependent world has never been higher. Nearly every industry — including health, defense, communications, transportation, finance, manufacturing, and energy — has some need for PNT tools. More advanced measurement can increase reliability and resilience, and PNT infrastructure can offer a range of capabilities by providing information such as location, orientation, altitude, tilt, directional movement, acceleration, and timing.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) has been the cornerstone of PNT for several decades, and the technology has evolved to increase accuracy, integrity, and security as well as grow its range of uses. Other technologies, such as inertial navigation systems and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), have also emerged to increase the reliability of PNT information. Nevertheless, there are still limitations to all of these tools. For example, GPS‘s reliance on satellites makes it susceptible to space weather events and potential adversarial actions in space, and threat agents can interfere with GPS systems through jamming and spoofing.
Quantum sensors can provide navigational information in environments where GPS signals are unavailable or unreliable. Such sensors include quantum accelerometers and gyroscopes, quantum magnetometers, and gravimeters and gravity gradiometers, all of which are discussed in this report. Many quantum sensors offer levels of precision not possible with traditional approaches for measuring physical quantities such as time, acceleration, and magnetic fields. Furthermore, networks of quantum sensors can provide additional reliability and accuracy in the collection of PNT information.
Quantum sensors have potential applications in the following high-feasibility, high-impact PNT use cases identified by quantum sensing experts and PNT stakeholders:
- magnetic navigation for resilient, unjammable PNT,
- precision timing for space-based networks,
- small satellite orientation and alignment,
- reference and resource maps, and
- standardization and validation testbeds for quantum sensors.
This report compares performance metrics of quantum sensors and their classical counterparts, reviews challenges to scaling and commercializing quantum sensors, and explores the potential use cases listed above in detail. Additionally, it presents QED-C® Member Proprietary four recommendations for developing quantum sensors and increasing their adoption in PNT applications:
- Invest in photonic integrated circuits R&D: Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) comprise multiple photonic components integrated on a single platform or substrate. The development of PICs would enable reduced size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) of quantum sensors, as well as make them more robust and reliable. These advances could prove critical for the application and commercialization of quantum sensors and spur adoption of quantum sensors across industries. However, PIC technologies for quantum applications are largely in the early stages of R&D. Federal funding agencies should increase investment in PIC R&D to address materials, integration, interconnect, and other challenges. As these are addressed, industry should be supported to develop PICs for applications relevant to government missions and commercial use cases.
- Engage the quantum community to identify opportunities for critical/high-value SWaP-C improvements: The diversity of components used in quantum sensors across the industry is one of the primary barriers to scale, but there are commonalities in industry’s needs. Quantum technology developers should collaborate with organizations such as QED-C in contributing to market studies of the SWaP-C improvements required for adoption. Compiling sensor performance metrics could uncover commonalities that would help technology developers know what capabilities to target. Moreover, identifying opportunities for critical improvements to SWaP-C for even a single use case could spark greater market adoption through economies of scale that trickle back into the supply chain. This could create a virtuous cycle via the supply chain components that in turn benefit the entire quantum sensor market with different SWaP-C requirements. Data collected from the quantum sensor community could be tracked and visualized so that achievement of performance targets is celebrated, remaining gaps are recognized, and high-value targets are pursued.
- Be an early adopter of quantum sensor technologies: The federal government depends on accurate and available PNT information for many important missions, including space exploration (NASA), defense and security (DOD), and energy management (DOE). As such, the federal government should be an early adopter of new quantum sensor technologies for its PNT needs. In this way, government would help fund the derisking and serve as a third-party validator of the technology. This would likely lead to lower cost for the technology, as federal investment would support the technology’s initial development and ultimately its broader adoption and scaling. Additionally, collaboration among federal agencies could lead to increased standardization of quantum sensors.
- Develop and deploy PNT systems for different platforms and environmental conditions: As laid out in this report, there are clear PNT use cases for quantum sensors at every elevation level, from subterranean to extraterrestrial, and for many different industries. Each sensor deployment situation can have unique environmental conditions and requirements for the sensor platform. Reference data for diverse situations will be required for PNT systems to operate and should include data on inertial, vibration, and shock conditions and temperature, humidity, and magnetic environmental conditions. Academia, federal funding agencies, and technology developers should collaborate to collect necessary reference data and develop PNT systems that can be deployed in various conditions, settings, and elevations. End users, including government customers, could be involved as well to provide data on environmental conditions and platform effects to inform quantum sensor engineering requirements and/or opportunities for quantum sensor developers to test prototypes on relevant platforms.
