Determine physical quantities with unprecedented precision.
Reading time: 7 minutes
It's here. The future of sensors. And surprise, surprise – it is barely any bigger than a sugar cube.
With the microwave-free quantum magnetometer, we have succeeded in producing a real highlight in cooperation with Quantum Technologies: Until recently, highly sensitive methods for measuring magnetic fields required very large structures, these had high power consumption levels and used components that either suffered from self-overheating or which influenced the fields to be measured with eddy currents. Those times are history. Our sensor solution is small, without cooling, cost-effective and nanometer-lengths more precise than anything previously known – simply sensortional.
Microscopic. But big enough to make waves.
Physical quantities such as temperature, velocity, electric and magnetic fields, as well as positions can now be determined with an unprecedented accuracy. In order to advance into this dimension, our quantum sensor is based on the highly complex laws and procedures of the aforementioned quantum technology.
That special something: The measuring method is designed in such a way that the sensor does not require the use of microwaves. Its extreme detection sensitivity, as well as the wide detection range, make it predestined for a variety of application areas. Especially for those for which there have been no functional measurement solutions to date. We are currently working at full speed on industrialising the quantum sensor and making it commercially usable.
Quantity is quality.
The microwave-free, quantum-based magnetic field sensor has numerous advantages. One of them is not obvious, but rather hidden in the housing: Due to its compact format, it can be set up super easily and inexpensively. But be careful, the dimensions are deceptive: small shell, strong core!
Due to the fluorescence signal, our sensor reacts in less than 20 nanoseconds. In addition, its surface has a maximum mechanical hardness (10). And so it can easily be in direct contact with moving planes — or operate at an enormous working distance, because it is geared up for top performance at all times. Inside, highly developed and unproblematic technology lies dormant: Precision alignment is not required thanks to scalar magnetometry.
Thus, the sensor element alignment is also readily possible in subsequent series production. Apart from that, neither sensor resets are necessary nor hysteresis or memory effects occur. The icing on the cake is its usability from a legal perspective, because the property rights are all ours.
This is how the future works.
High-tech? Our sensor raises the bar – and that's how it works: The sensor system uses the magnetic field-dependent red fluorescence of high-density NV diamonds. The red florescence radiation is produced when the diamond is irradiated with green light. The sensor uses the magnetic field dependence of the spin states of the NV Centres and the associated change in the intensity of the florescence for measuring the magnetic flux density – it is more complicated than it sounds.
