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IDTechEx Discusses Unjammable Sat-Navs and the Quantum Sensor Revolution

CAMBRIDGE, England, May 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The modern world depends heavily on GPS satellites to navigate, but too often, access to them is lost or even jammed. This creates a significant risk to safety in multiple industries — especially aerospace, but also automotive and consumer electronics. Following the world's first successful flight demonstration of quantum navigation technology in May 2024 by BAE, QinetiQ, and Infleqtion, this article outlines the power of quantum sensors.

The quest for more reliable precision navigation and timing technology solutions is now driving significant interest in quantum sensors and atomic clock technology.  This is just one of the many applications of this revolutionary technology covered in IDTechEx's Quantum Sensor Market report, in what is predicted to become a multi-billion-dollar industry within the decade.

Quantum sensors offer more precision compared to incumbents

Quantum sensors use quantum phenomena to enable highly sensitive measurements of many physical properties. They can measure time (atomic clocks), magnetic field and current, gravity, angular motion, single photons, and more. Emerging quantum technologies within the quantum sensors market are also benefitting from the growing hype around quantum computing and quantum communication technologies (particularly given their applications for cybersecurity).

To date, the most common method to accurately determine one's position and the local time is via data from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), for example, the US military's global positioning system (GPS). However, there are environments where access to GNSS data is restricted. This can be a result of highly mountainous terrain blocking signals or spoofing by a third party. Precision navigation systems are under increasing pressure to remain reliable in GNSS denied environments.

Continuing to navigate when triangulation capabilities are lost depends on accurate measurements of distance traveled, direction, speed, and time. Existing motion sensors, gyroscopes, and local oscillators (clocks) don't have sufficient accuracy for precision navigation. The promise of quantum sensors and atomic clocks is that they are fundamentally much more accurate than traditional approaches, so much so that they can provide local access to precise inertial navigation systems without depending on GNSS.