Edmonton-based Q-Block Inc.’s ‘unhackable’ quantum clock device AllanQ. Photo by Q-Block Inc.

Article content

A Canadian quantum startup aims to tackle one of the technology’s biggest bottlenecks by making quantum equipment usable outside of labs.

Article content

Edmonton-based Q-Block Inc. is turning room-sized quantum laboratory technology into compact, self-contained shoebox sized hardware units that it is calling Q-modules. These combine precision lasers, optics, detectors and real-time control to make quantum technology practical outside the lab.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Q-Block was founded in 2020 by University of Waterloo professor Kyung Soo Choi, now the company’s chief executive, out of the University’s Institute for Quantum Computing.

Article content

Article content

“Quantum systems have historically been built as bespoke laboratory assemblies, each shaped around the people who built it and the room it occupied, said Choi. “Such a system can produce a remarkable result once; it cannot be reproduced at volume, serviced by a technician, or operated by an organization that did not build it.”

Article content

Most current quantum equipment today needs ultra-stable temperature-controlled labs, where each instrument is tuned by hand to keep them from breaking down. But the company’s Q-module integrates lasers, optics, detectors and control electronics into self-contained units that stabilize themselves in real time and run at room temperature on ordinary building power, so the equipment can operate in the field.

Article content

The Q-modules contain the company’s three different quantum products: AllanQ, LuciaQ and PolarisQ, which are built from the fundamental building blocks of Q-modules into quantum systems, Choi said. The Q-module device is designed to fit into a universal metal electronics rack, the same rack that would be used for standard computing equipment. The hardware can also be bolted into aircraft, drones and vehicles.

Article content

Article content

AllanQ is designed to be an unhackable quantum clock that keeps a stable frequency for precise timing in environments where GPS doesn’t work, according to Choi. This allows for GPS-independent navigation, networked computations and precision sensing.

Article content

Article content

LuciaQ is a networking platform that uses particles of light (photons) to link multiple quantum processors together.

Article content

PolarisQ is a modular quantum computing platform that uses individual atoms, held in place and controlled by lasers, as qubits (basic units of information in quantum computing). It is a self-contained system that does not need a dedicated quantum lab built around it, Choi said.

Article content

In 2023, the 13-person company was awarded $150,000 as a Phase 1 Proof of Concept grant for its quantum receiver from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada under the Innovative Solutions Canada Program, according to a Government of Canada website.

Article content

Q-Block is developing quantum timing, quantum sensing, quantum networking and edge quantum computing technologies for defence and critical infrastructure applications through government contracts now.