RTX BBN Technologies creating photonic chip-scale quantum
sensors for defense and commercial applications
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 3, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- RTX's (NYSE: RTX) BBN Technologies is developing
next-generation, compact, low-power, deployable photonic sensors
that will provide users with better awareness of environmental
elements critical to their missions with greater than ten-times the
precision of current sensors. This new capability will have
widespread defense and commercial applicability, disrupting fields
such as LiDAR, fiber-based sensing, biosensing, system and network
monitoring, navigation and communications.
As part of DARPA's Intensity Squeezed Photonic Integration
with Revolutionary Detection (INSPIRED) program, the BBN-led team
will deliver a prototype photonic chip that uses exotic quantum
states of squeezed light to achieve its goals.
The successful delivery of this custom-designed prototype
requires the team to push detection sensitivity 16 dB below the
fundamental "shot noise" limit, which imposes a strict bound on the
sensitivity of conventional sensors that are not equipped to take
advantage of the unique quantum properties of light.
"Light is a powerful tool that finds widespread use in sensors
like LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) for mapping,
autonomous navigation, and more," said Dr. Mo Soltani, BBN principal investigator on the
effort. "But today's sensors are limited by the randomness inherent
in the way light fluctuates. Imagine that you have a light source,
and you're counting the photons arriving at a detector every
second. Because of the quantum nature of light, the number of
photons you count each second will vary, even if your source is
perfectly stable." This variation in detection, known as shot
noise, limits how precisely a sensor can use light to probe its
surroundings.
To overcome this problem, the team's chip-scale detector will
use quantum mechanics to fine tune the light it generates. "Our
device minimizes the photon noise by 'squeezing' the light
source—suppressing certain kinds of quantum fluctuations while
augmenting others," said Dr. Michael
Grace, a quantum information scientist at BBN involved
in the project. "This lets us focus on extracting the information
embedded in a specific photonic property of interest without being
limited by shot noise."
Using squeezed light to increase the precision of photon
measurements has been proven in meter-scale laboratory experiments
and kilometer-scale gravitational wave facilities. The team will
use its expertise in photonic integrated circuits and quantum
measurement devices to achieve the design and fabrication
innovations required to transfer squeezed light capabilities to a
fieldable, millimeter-scale detector for detection across a wide
frequency range within 100 MHz to 10 GHz.
In addition, BBN will use its proficiency in systems
integration to manage a team that includes leading quantum and
photonic experts from Xanadu Quantum, the University of Maryland (Prof. Saikat Guha), and the Photonics group of
Raytheon's Advanced Technology division in San Diego, California. The team brings robust
capabilities in quantum sensor design, squeezing and sub-shot noise
detection, quantum photonic testing and chip packaging, and rapid
prototyping of compact RF-synthesizer modules.
"Improving the accuracy, sensitivity, resolution and efficiency
of fielded sensors makes them more effective in a wide range of
applications, from mapping and surveying to autonomous navigation
and obstacle detection," said Soltani. "All of that translates to
better information to use in decision-making."
Work on this contract is being performed in Cambridge, Massachusetts; San Diego, California; College Park, Maryland; and Toronto, Canada.
About RTX BBN Technologies
Founded in 1948, RTX BBN Technologies provides
advanced technology research and development with a focus on
national security priorities. From the ARPANET to the
first email, through the first metro network protected by quantum
cryptography, BBN consistently transitions advanced
research to produce innovative solutions for its customers.
BBN takes risks and challenges conventions to create
solutions in analytics and machine intelligence, networks and
sensors, intelligent software and systems, and physical
sciences.
About RTX
With more than 185,000 global employees, RTX pushes the limits
of technology and science to redefine how we connect and protect
our world. Through industry-leading businesses – Collins Aerospace,
Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon – we are advancing aviation,
engineering integrated defense systems for operational success, and
developing next-generation technology solutions and manufacturing
to help global customers address their most critical
challenges. The company, with 2023 sales of $69 billion, is
headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
For questions or to schedule an interview, please contact
corporatepr@rtx.com
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SOURCE RTX