Many industrial sectors are currently experiencing rapid technological development towards more precise monitoring of their production. The resulting increasing demands on accuracy and drift stability of sensor systems will require a technological leap towards quantum sensor technology in the near future. Up to now, research in this field has mainly taken place in an academic setting and the quantum sensors developed in this context have proven to be too large and not robust enough for use in innovative products.

In order to advance the transfer of research developments from the field of quantum sensor technology into industrial applications, an application laboratory is currently being established at the Fraunhofer IAF in Freiburg. Interested companies and in particular regional SMEs and start-ups will have the opportunity to evaluate the innovation potential of quantum sensors for their specific requirements. This concerns for example the booming semiconductor industry, but also areas such as medical technology, security technology, navigation, geology and satellite-based earth observation. These will benefit from a faster transition of quantum sensor research into industrial applications.

The application laboratory is being set up as part of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project “QMag”, short for quantum magnetometry. In this project, researchers from six Fraunhofer Institutes are working with university partners to develop quantum sensors for the highly sensitive detection of magnetic fields. Both the state of Baden-Württemberg and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft are supporting the four-year project with €1 million each.