Conversation with Bosch Entering the quantum sensor market within 5 years!

In February 2022, Robert Bosch GmbH (BOSCH) issued a press release announcing its plans to enter the market for quantum sensor products: a new business unit has been created to commercialize quantum sensors. According to Bosch, "Our goal is to increase the wide range of practical benefits of quantum effects - from the development of carbon-neutral power systems to all aspects of neurodiagnostics. Bosch has been conducting extensive research in the field of quantum sensing for many years, and we consider ourselves a global leader in the field."

Subsequently, Dr. Katrin Kobe was hired as CEO.

Katrin Kobe

Kobe is a Ph.D. physicist with more than 25 years of management experience at several technology companies. During her time in charge of Bosch's Quantum Sensing business, she developed several new business areas. "At Bosch, research is a top priority," she said, "and as a global company with alliances and expertise in quantum technology, Bosch is seizing the opportunity to make progress in this promising new field in an agile start-up environment."

Recently, eeNews Europe caught up with Katrin Kobe and got an update on the company's progress.

Kobe said, "Quantum sensing is still part of the company's research, but the commercialization of certain quantum sensing principles is left to startups."

The company has appointed Frederik Schaal as CTO and Andrea Bräuning as COO, and has hired 24 employees with a goal of hiring up to 30.Kobe says that BQS is now ideally positioned to drive technological advances, "We have the independence and flexibility of a startup, but also the ability to work with the company's research department and Bosch's many customers."

Kobe clearly recognizes that quantum sensing can be based on a large number of different quantum phenomena and has the potential to produce highly sensitive, compact and portable sensors. Emphasizing "portability," Kobe says these sensors can provide game-changing solutions to a variety of challenges.

Currently, BQS is focusing on magnetic field measurements using nitrogen vacancies in diamond.

Nitrogen vacancy centers (NV color centers) are point defects in diamond crystals that are photoluminescent. This makes it possible to read out the electronic spin state at specific atomic positions. The sharp resonances in photoluminescence can be explained by magnetic effects and quantum entanglement, and individual NV color centers can also be used as quantum bits for quantum computing.

In addition to NV color cores, Kobe believes there are other physical systems that could be used to create quantum magnetometers. These systems include superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), optical traps that utilize laser radiation pressure to capture small particles, and vapor cells. However, the diamond NV color-centering method is solid-state and therefore very robust, theoretically requiring the least amount of space and having the highest spatial resolution.

However, the diamond NV color-centering technique is complex and requires many components, but it opens up many potentially lucrative measurement applications. These applications range from battery sensing (an obvious application in automotive electronics) to muscle and heart monitoring in medical applications to practical brain-computer interfaces (BCI).

Main components and sensing principles for magnetic field sensing using nitrogen vacancies in diamond. Credit: Bosch Quantum Sensing.

Using such a magnetometer it would also be possible to measure position-related deviations in the Earth's magnetic field, making it an alternative to satellite global positioning. Such a magnetometer could be used to map the world's surface, from which the path of any object moving across the surface could then be plotted.

The use of diamond-based solid-state sensors clearly also has the potential to be combined with solid-state integrated circuit manufacturing, but Kobe insists that this is still a long-term aspiration.

For now, the business unit is focusing on producing a series of minimum viable products (MVPs), or prototypes, that potential customers can use to provide feedback to Bosch Quantum Sensing.

"A successful quantum sensing business requires a complete ecosystem, including application knowledge and production technology. Many of these components are still in the development phase. For example, there is currently only one source of sufficiently high-quality diamond. Of course, the ecosystem deficit applies to every player in quantum sensing."

Kobe also explained that it is almost impossible for a company to know exactly which implementation of an application will be successful and gain market traction. As a result, companies must have lots of ideas and listen to customer feedback. "We have a long list of about 200 ideas from which we pick and then follow up or discontinue them based on progress made and feedback received."

The product funnel: from idea to successful rollout. Credit: Bosch Quantum Sensing.

"In the last 18 months, we've gone from a lab setup in 2021 to a shoebox-sized version of the magnetometer in 2022 to a milk carton-sized version in 2023." Kobe she adds, "Next, we'll be working on a magnetometer the size of a cigarette box, and then one the size of a matchbox."

Kobe depicts a company that is almost pre-startup. She says, "Bosch is definitely in it for the long haul. The company had been working on quantum sensing for about seven years before it started its quantum sensing business unit."

"A century has passed since Einstein's time, but we are still astounded by the impact of quantum physics - and the practical applications of quantum technology are bound to be even more amazing." --Volkmar Denner, former Bosch CEO and current scientific advisor in the field of quantum technology

Kobe agrees that Bosch's Quantum Sensing business unit may not bring a product to market in the next year or so, but it will certainly be on the market within five years. But she also cautions that when a technology finds its niche and clear market advantage, it will develop quickly. Until then, there's a lot of technology improvement and product definition to be done.

Reference links:

[1] https://www.bosch-presse.de/pressportal/de/en/bosch-establishes-startup-for-quantum-sensing-dr-katrin-kobe-to-be-responsible- for-establishing-the-startup-and-launching-marketable-products-237889.html

[2]https://www.bosch-quantumsensing.com/

[3]https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/ceo-interview-with-katrin-kobe-of-bosch-quantum-sensing/

[4]https://www.bosch.com/stories/quantum-technology/