Canadian tech startup SBQuantum expands into U.S. as demand for its sensors grows in defence sector

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A Canadian quantum technology startup is expanding to the United States as major defence contractors and governments seek out its sensors to help them navigate when GPS systems suffer interference – something that’s quickly become the norm in modern conflicts.

Sherbrooke-based SBQuantum is opening its American entity, Zero Drift Technologies, in Cambridge, Mass., to help commercialize its technology for the U.S. market.

The Canadian company makes quantum diamond magnetometers, which are sensors that can help replace or improve existing navigation systems in contested or degraded environments using the Earth’s magnetic field. In Ukraine, the Middle East and other areas of conflict, jamming or spoofing of navigation systems has become common practice to interfere with the movement of devices on the battlefield, such as drones or other autonomous systems being used for surveillance and strikes.

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Jamming refers to using radio signals to deliberately interfere with a system’s ability to receive data. Spoofing is when a navigation system is thrown off by fake radio signals. In Ukraine, these practices have forced its military to develop new fibre-optic drones, which fly with a long spool of cable attached, providing a wired connection meant to make them immune to jamming.

“People talk about nests that birds make with these optical fibres that lay all around the place now,” said SBQuantum founder David Roy-Guay, who has been having discussions with Ukrainian border services to help gain real-world insight into mission requirements.

“So, if there was a way to navigate without GPS, in an autonomous fashion, that would be a very big advantage to the troops.”

That’s where SBQuantum’s technology could come in handy. The company is developing an unjammable, unspoofable navigation method that doesn’t require fibre-optic cables. Rather, it relies upon the Earth’s magnetic field, which is very hard to interfere with, said Mr. Roy-Guay, who is also chief technical officer at both SBQuantum and Zero Drift.

“You would need a giant magnet or a giant electromagnetic coil that is as powerful as the magnetic effect at the core of the Earth, which is unthinkable,” he said.

The technology requires an accurate model of the Earth’s magnetic field, which shifts and changes over time.

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That’s why, in March, SBQuantum launched a satellite carrying two of its quantum sensors made of diamond into space to test its approach to magnetic detection. Currently, the Earth’s magnetic field is tracked by a group of three European satellites called Swarm that were launched in 2013. SBQuantum’s sensors were designed to improve upon this aging technology, collecting data in real time, as opposed to the snapshots of the field transmitted from Swarm that scientists must stitch together.

The company plans to use the data collected by its satellite to create a reference point for other vessels, such as drones or planes, that will carry its sensors closer to the ground for mapping and navigation without GPS.

“The satellite coverage will allow us to level everything together so that then we can have reliable operation for drone navigation near the ground,” Mr. Roy-Guay said.

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This coverage will also prove extremely useful for mapping and navigation in the Arctic, where Mr. Roy-Guay said the magnetic North Pole moves faster and maps require frequent updates.

The launch of SBQuantum’s satellite was part of a larger initiative called the MagQuest Challenge, sponsored by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Defence.

Eric Giroux, chief executive officer of SBQuantum and Zero Drift, said the Canadian company’s expansion was a strategic one in terms of working with the U.S. government and taking advantage of research and development funding there. For example, he said, Zero Drift could be well positioned to participate in a challenge posed by Washington’s Defence Innovation Unit to collect magnetic field data using aerial systems.

“We’ll start mapping fairly quick here in the U.S., and we think Canada will do the same shortly. It’s just a matter of the government organizing the new procurement office that they’re building around the Defence Industrial Strategy,” he said.

SBQuantum also announced the closing of a US$4-million seed round on Thursday, which will help fund its U.S. expansion and product development.

Back in Canada, Mr. Roy-Guay said the company is positioning itself to take advantage of the country’s growing defence budget, through avenues such as National Research Council programs and other contractual opportunities.

The government is sending all the right signals, he said, they just need to translate into action.

“Everybody is saying, ‘Hey, we want to work closer with industry. We want pilots, we want demos.’ So, now we just need to bridge that gap and get the demos running.”