Quantum-enabled radar
How do we protect our future airspace?
The radar combines incredibly precise quantum science with compact atomic clock oscillators. Atomic clock oscillators can outperform current clock technologies in terms of resilience and accuracy, and therefore provide the high precision and low signal noise required for the radar to detect small, slow moving objects at longer distances, and even in cluttered environments. Alongside general monitoring of airspace, quantum radar would be a crucial technology in identifying unmanned aircraft misuse which would potentially put other vehicles in the air and all those beneath at risk.
Our challenge is to provide ultra-precise timing and quantum-enabled radar to areas where Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) timing is denied, undesirable, or lacks the required precision.
Dark fibre link networks
The quantum-enabled radars installed on the University of Birmingham are part of a larger timing and synchronisation testbed led by Hub researchers alongside NPL. Another key example of this work is the established dark fibre link between the NPL headquarters (Teddington) and the University of Birmingham campus.
Precision timing
This research is underpinned by incredibly accurate quantum clocks developed by Hub researchers for a decade. These currently exist in only in a handful of laboratories, and they require huge rooms and kilowatts of power. These clocks are the most precise scientific instruments created by humanity to date.
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