To develop innovative, world leading high power industrial microwave generators for large scale microwave processing and to maximise the business opportunities that commercially benefit from their use.

The aim of this project is to integrate the knowledge developed in the School of Physics, University of Nottingham, on artificial multilayer compound semiconductor crystals into commercially available superlattice electron device (SLED)-based, mm-wave frequency multipliers. SLED-based frequency multipliers offer e2v key technical and commercial advantages for multi-frequency imaging and open the market to supply ITAR-free, complete mm-wave sub-assemblies (including frequency sources and mixers) to our existing customer base in the security imaging and non-destructive testing markets.

To develop innovative, world leading high power industrial microwave generators for large scale microwave processing and to maximise the business opportunities that commercially benefit from their use.

This project aims to address the challenge of fully traceable, secure and certified dissemination of the high precision national timescale from NPL and the National Timing Centre to provide a UK sovereign solution for critical national infrastructure and to support the security of our emerging digital society. A variety of critical infrastructure services, such as reliable energy supply, safe transport links, mobile communications, data networks and electronic financial transactions rely on accurate and trustworthy time synchronisation for effective functioning. Up to 90% of these systems rely on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for a timing signal. However, GNSS signals are easily disrupted either accidentally or maliciously, and in prolonged GNSS unavailability, these critical services stop functioning. The reliance on GNSS for precision timing, and the consequent vulnerability of our essential services prompted Innovate UK to commission a report published by London Economics in June 2017\. It estimated the impact on the UK economy of a five day GNSS outage at £5.2B. That message is becoming widely understood and is creating a demand for timing solutions that are not GNSS dependent as a matter of sovereignty. The innovative time dissemination solution arising from this project fulfills this need and will find widespread application in precision timing for base stations, network servers for financial services, data centres, national power distribution networks and air traffic control systems. It will maximise access and security of the data we use and exchange, enhance research and education and create new markets for time and frequency synchronisation from electronic signature and certification in legal and commercial to leisure and entertainment. Further applications arise in areas where no GNSS signal is available and where synchronisation or timestamping using a certified legal time source is required. This project will aim to demonstrate the feasibility of a secure, traceable certified system that derives directly from the National Timescale and benefits a range of critical capabilities in civil and military applications to bring security and economic gains for the UK.

To develop innovative, world-leading, high power industrial microwave generators for large scale microwave processing and to maximise the business opportunities that commercially benefit from their use.

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a well understood application of quantum technology and there are several metropolitan fibre networks already established for QKD services. However, key distribution is limited by absorption inside optical fibres which mean that transmissions over distances greater than about 150 km are impractical. Free space communications, though, does not suffer the same degree of attenuation and single photon communication with satellites orbiting the Earth at several hundred kilometres has been demonstrated. Satellites then, provide an ideal vehicle for distributing quantum key information across very large distances between end users spread across countries or continents. However, in order to benefit from the advances in satellite technology, a network of Optical Ground Receivers (OGRs) are required to receive and detect the photons carrying the key information. The UK, as a major player in the development of advanced optical & photonic technologies, is well positioned to address this future market for OGR. This project works with users to specify OGR requirements and prototypes and tests a QKD receiver, whilst designing and making plans for scaled manufacture in the UK.

"Despite our increasing ability to detect and monitor objects that exist on land, sea, around buildings or in space, our ability to detect objects beneath the ground has not improved significantly. When it comes to attempting to locate a buried and forgotten pipe, telling the extent of a sink hole or assessing the quality of infrastructure we still often resort to digging or drilling holes. This presents a huge economic and societal cost as road networks are dug up, oil wells are dry or brown-field land is left undeveloped. Existing techniques are all fundamentally limited in either their sensitivity (classical microgravity), their penetration (Ground Penetrating Radar) or their cost (seismic). For over 30 years, universities and academics have been exploiting the strange effects of quantum superposition to measure gravity with astonishing sensitivity. Using a process called cold-atom interferometry, the wave-partial duality of a rubidium atom is compared to the phase of a laser beam in a way which can detect very small changes in the way atoms fall freely in a vacuum. Changes in this free-fall can be used to determine the local strength of gravity and if this measurement is sensitive enough, the measurement can be used to tell whether there are voids, pipes, tunnels, oil and gas reserves in the ground beneath your feet. Although the potential is there, there are huge scientific and engineering challenges to delivering this performance. This project is proposed by the UK consortium of the best scientific and engineering companies the UK has to offer. Working with leading UK universities, these companies are looking to overcome these challenges, and develop a new industry of 'quantum' cold-atom sensors in the UK. If these advanced performances can be demonstrated, the economic and societal benefit of this new 'quantum' industry in the UK is expected to be significant and long-lasting."

This project will develop a pre-production prototype of a miniature atomic clock for providing precise timing to a variety of critical infrastructure services, such as reliable energy supply, safe transport links, mobile communications, data networks and electronic financial transactions. The precise measurement of time is fundamental to the effective functioning of these services, which currently rely on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for a timing signal. However, GNSS signals are easily disrupted either accidentally or maliciously, and in prolonged GNSS unavailability, these critical services stop functioning. The reliance on GNSS for precision timing, and the consequent vulnerability of our essential services prompted InnovateUK to commission a report published by London Economics in June 2017\. It estimated the impact on the UK economy of a five day GNSS outage at £5.2B. That message is becoming widely understood and is creating a demand for timing solutions that are not GNSS dependent. The next generation miniature atomic clock arising from this project fulfills this need and will find widespread application in precision timing for mobile base stations, network servers for financial services, data centres, national power distribution networks and air traffic control systems. Further applications arise in areas where an independent timing reference is needed on mobile platforms and especially in areas where no GNSS signal is available. A high performance compact clock would benefit a range of useful capabilities, addressing civil and military applications, bringing both technical and economic gains for the UK.

"**Low noise and high sensitivity imaging technologies are crucial to the success of quantum technologies. In many cases, the performance of these imaging technologies directly relates to the sensitivity that can be achieved by quantum sensors, the performance of quantum imaging technologies and/or the speed of quantum computer systems.** **Teledyne e2v were the pioneering inventors of the EMCCD technology in the 1990s, which was introduced to the science market by Andor in 2001-02\. The iXon camera developed through this relationship remains the very best on the market when very low noise or single-photon sensitivity is needed.** **This project will allow Andor and Teledyne e2v to build on this established relationship to develop new, quantum-specific EMCCD cameras. These cameras will significantly improve the infrared response, noise and speed, thereby allowing for improved sensitivity, performance, measurement and characterisation of quantum devices beyond what was available before. This R&D will allow Andor to maintain a leading position in the sale of scientific cameras into the quantum science market and it will help Andor and Teledyne e2v investigate future industrial and academic imaging requirements for the emerging quantum technologies industry.**"

"Organic polymers are used in a range of sectors including composites for vehicles and aircraft; performance coatings and packaging and are difficult to synthesise at industrial scale. The manufacturing performance of industrial polymers is typically undertaken in large stirred tank reactors, heated by oil or steam jackets. These are characterised by long reaction times and are associated with slow heating /cooling cycles and lack of consistency between batches. Volume of production is also limited by capital cost of additional units. This project will develop a unique commercial scale microwave heating system for industrial polymer synthesis which can be retro-fitted to existing commercial reactors, delivering a step-change improvement in both reaction time, process control and volume production. We will then demonstrate the technical and commercial benefits of this technology through retro-fitting the design to an existing pilot-scale facility. Existing work at 5 kg scale has shown resins can be manufactured in half the time with improved colour (less burning) and enhanced specification. Outputs of this project will be the design of a commercial scale system, whose techno-economic performance is validated using a pilot-scale demonstrator. It will enable partner INOX design and Te2v to manufacture, sell and retrofit this technology to key players in the polymer industry and if fully realised would reduce their manufacturing costs by 5.6 bn EUR annually on a market for powder coatings worth 13bn EUR per year whilst at the same time cutting CO2 emissions by 740,000 tonnes per year. A verified supply chain with leveraged support by the Centre for Process Intensification (CPI) with will be used to engage other end users to promote wide adoption of this technology, befitting the UK industrial polymer sector."

New developments in quantum technology have resulted in the ability to cool atoms close to absolute zero using lasers and magnetic fields. Laboratory experiments have shown that these "cold atoms" can be used as ultra-sensitive sensors for measuring gravity. Using these sensors in space will enable the mapping of tiny changes in the strength of gravity across the surface of the Earth. This project will investigate the potential applications and markets that these sensors will enable from space. These include the prospect of more accurate monitoring of changes in polar ice mass, ocean currents and sea level thereby enhancing the capability of global climate models. Higher resolution data would lead to the ability to monitor smaller water sources and discover new underground natural resources which are currently not detectable. Similar technology could also be used for deep space navigation and for providing higher precision timing sources in space. The project will also study the technical feasibility of producing a space based system and will propose a roadmap showing the steps to achieving a commercial space sensor.

The opportunity that this project addresses is the use of quantum based gravity sensors to detect buried assets or structures. However, for many applications, quantum sensors are still very new or unknown and still possess technical barriers towards adoption, and hence potential end-users find it difficult to judge their true potential. Modelling has shown their potential over conventional devices for the majority of survey based applications, but a key barrier is their operation on moving platforms. Overcoming this obstacle will drastically reduce survey time and cost, in future allowing survey via unmanned air and land vehicles, or alternative applications such as long term resilient navigation without GPS through the use of gravity maps.

Precise measurement of time is fundamental to the effective functioning of services we take for granted in modern society. This project is a major step in developing a reliable, widely available timing standard that is one hundred times more stable and accurate than those commercial systems in use today. It will enhance resilience and reliability of energy supply, safety of transport links, data networks and electronic financial transactions. The enhanced performance will enable advances in mobile telecommunications such as transition to a 5G network. The use of GPS for timing signal in these essential systems is widespread but vulnerability to accidental or malicious disruption is an emerging concern. The impact of the loss of power, transportation and communications could easily become catastrophic in the very short term and disrupt our highly interdependent society in the long term. The Royal Academy of Engineering highlighted these issues in their report of 2011 and that message is creating a demand for timing solutions that are not GPS dependent. The precision clock in this project is based on transferring the UK’s National Physical Laboratory know-how into British industry and creating a technical and economic success for the UK.

The coming gravity sensors based on Quantum Technologies (QT) have the potential to disrupt existing surveying practices through dramatically improved measurement sensitivities. GRAM is a collaboration between Teledyne e2v, RSK, the Canal & River Trust, the Coal Authority, Cranfield University and the University of Birmingham (UoB) to establish the Quantum Technology (QT) gravity sensor market opportunities against assessment of current geophysical technologies to determine soil compaction for precision agriculture, detection of water levels in disused mines and mineshafts and canal & river embankment leak detection. GRAM will baseline the capabilities of existing sensor technologies in the sectors identified, provide technical specification and performance requirements to the manufacturers of prototype and commercial QT gravity sensors and establish a market pull from the end users of the information generated by the sensors. Moreover, it will provide a market sizing and market penetration assessment to determine the size of the potential markets, analyse the competitors and determine the cost brackets for each of the three applications together with expected survey methodologies.

The project aims to use microwave technology in new ground breaking processes to transform unuseable ferrous process by products into a high value raw material that can be re-used in the steel making process, thus creating value for the partners, improving resource resilience, reducing environmental impact and increasing business sustainability. It is envisaged that a successful outcome will have significant economic impact across a broad range of industrial sectors as the technology gains acceptance.

The precise measurement of time is fundamental to the effective functioning of the services we take for granted in modern society. This project will develop a pre-production prototype of a miniature atomic clock for precise timing in a variety of essential services such as reliable energy supply, safe transport links, mobile communications, data networks and electronic financial transactions. Today, these services rely on GPS for a timing signal which is easily disrupted either accidentally or maliciously. In prolonged GPS unavailability these services stop functioning. The reliance on GPS for precision timing and the consequent vulnerability of our essential services was made clear in a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011. That message is becoming more widely known and it is creating a demand for timing solutions that are not GPS dependent. The miniature atomic clock arising from this project fills this need and it will find widespread application in precision timing for mobile base stations, network servers for financial services, data centres, national power distribution networks and air traffic control systems. This project will address civil and military applications enabling a technical and economic success for the UK.

The presence of sinkholes, mineshafts and other buried objects under construction sites is a huge problem in civil engineering. These underground openings are a risk to the health and safety of people working on the site. They are also a risk after construction work has been completed as they can move and increase in size over time and may open up causing a building; a road or a bridge to subside or collapse with devastating effect. The REVEAL project aims to develop a quantum gravimeter which can be used for subterranean surveying to identify these underground objects before construction takes place. This reduces the risk for people working on the site and allows remedial work to be carried out before building takes place, decreasing the risk of future structural problems. The project aims to produce an instrument with at least twice the sensitivity of competing classical gravimeters so that even smaller and deeper holes in the ground can be detected.

New developments in quantum technology have resulted in the ability to cool atoms close to absolute zero using lasers. At these temperatures, laboratory experiments have shown that these “cold atoms” can be used as ultra-sensitive sensors for measuring gravity. CASPA will translate leading UK science into commercial products for space and other markets. It will take the technology out of the laboratory and build it into a small satellite payload that is capable of producing “cold atoms” in space. Demonstrating this new technology in space is a vital first step towards realising real instruments that are capable of mapping tiny changes in the strength of gravity across the surface of the earth. The extreme sensitivity brought by “cold atom” sensors will provide the ability to finely monitor the movement of mass within Earth systems. This has multiple applications including more accurate monitoring of changes in polar ice mass, ocean currents and sea level. Higher resolution data will lead to the ability to monitor smaller water sources and discover new underground natural resources which are currently not detectable. Similar technology will also be used for deep space navigation and for providing higher precision timing sources in space.

Quantum technology is usually seen as an academic science that sits in big experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider, but it is now coming much closer to home and within a couple of years will affect the life of man in the street. We all tire of roadworks and get frustrated when they cut through our phone lines or water supply. Quantum technology can provide an answer by enabling surveyors to see through the ground and map the hidden structure beneath our feet using gravimeters that precisely measure the small variations in gravity caused by pipes and voids under the ground. This project is focused on developing practical technology that can enable the large complex experiments in University laboratories to be package into portable instruments that can be carried out into the street. Two of the UK’s leading technology manufacturing companies, G&H and e2v Technologies are teaming up with the University of Birmingham, which heads up the UK quantum sensing hub, to develop lasers, vacuum systems and control electronics for these quantum based sensors.

Following the Nobel Prize winning discovery that lasers can cool atoms to extremely low temperatures, where they can occupy a single quantum state, there has been a lot of research into potential applications. Laboratory experiments with cold atoms have shown a 1000 times improvement in inertial navigation accuracy and a 1000 times improvement in timing over conventional atomic clocks. For these breakthroughs to be exploited in real applications the laboratory experiments must be developed into practical devices that could be operated in a satellite, aircraft, ship or hospital The aim of the FreezeRay project is to develop a commercial “all-in-one” system for cooling atoms. This will be the core engine of a cold atom system and will consist of a compact sealed vacuum chamber and a highly stable laser source that will cool the atoms. The technical approach will draw on component technology such as lasers and amplifiers that have been developed for optical communications and are highly reliable with operating lifetime exceeding 25 years in harsh environments.

To develop new electronic components for radar systems and infrastructure.