QuantX Labs has announced the company has reached a major milestone in the development of one of its flagship technologies. The Sapphire Cryogenic Clock (Cryoclock for short) is now ready for inclusion into the Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN).
Following nearly two years of work to upgrades and improvements, QuantX’s Cryoclock has recently passed through a full acceptance testing of this flagship technology.
JORN is the Australian Defence Force’s key surveillance system, consisting of a connected series of three remote Over the Horizon radars located around Australia. JORN provides wide area surveillance of Australian borders and beyond and is this critical to our defence posture. BAE Systems Australia is leading the Phase 6 upgrade of the network.
Following this key acceptance stage, we will now work with BAE Systems Australia on an approach that would see the Cryoclock deployed into the JORN system enabling significantly improved detection with greatly increased sensitivity.
The Sapphire Cryogenic Clock has been developed over more than 30 years. Its current iteration shows a frequency instability that is equivalent to losing or gaining only one second every 40 million years. This is 100 times better than commercial atomic clocks over the relevant timescales. It is this signal purity that delivers the increased range and sensitivity of the JORN system.
QuantX’s Managing Director, Professor Andre Luiten said “It makes me incredibly proud to see leading-edge Australian research translated into technology that will make all Australians that little bit safer”.
QuantX’s General Manager, Dr Martin O’Connor, added “Every day I see our company work closely with University personnel, with other small defence companies, and with BAE Systems. It is this strong collaboration across the innovation pipeline that allows us to offer this breakthrough technology to the market”.
