Perrseus

Interest in high-performance cold-atom quantum sensors, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), photonic, and thermal atom sensors has been increasing over the past decade due to their potential to revolutionize precision navigation, timing, and quantum information science.

Cold-atom quantum sensors are highly sensitive and stable because they utilize isolated, ultra-cold atoms to measure physical quantities with extreme precision, as opposed to conventional sensors that are susceptible to environmental drift and noise.

Microscale ultra-high vacuum (µUHV) systems are required to isolate these atoms and enable high-performance sensing modalities. However, current implementations of miniature vacuum packaging cannot reliably maintain the extremely low pressures needed, leaving sensors vulnerable to rapid degradation and limited operational lifetimes. Further, creating µUHV systems at scale requires integrating complex electrical and optical interconnects, leaving very little room for conventional, bulky vacuum pump technologies within miniature packages.

To address the manufacturing and scaling challenges impeding the use of next-generation cold-atom quantum sensors, DARPA has launched the Perrseus program. Perrseus aims to develop a new class of manufacturable, scalable fabrication processes and methodologies to realize robust µUHV systems compatible with a variety of sensing modalities including MEMs, photonics, and quantum sensors.

The Perrseus program will address the combination of size, hermeticity, and integrated pumping to enable stable, long-term vacuum performance in miniature packages. Perrseus aims to build µUHV systems that maintain pressures of <10^-10 mbar for a lifetime of greater than three years within a tiny <5 mL package, making future quantum and atomic sensors manufacturable, highly portable, and field-deployable to proliferate at scale.

Key to the program is overcoming microscale material, process, and scientific boundaries, including:

• Permeable materials that allow atmospheric gases to slowly leak into the vacuum
• Leaky bonds and sealing techniques at the interface of different package materials
• Electrical and optical interconnects that compromise hermeticity
• Miniature active and passive pumps with currently limited capacity and pumping rates
• Methods to measure the vacuum level inside the µUHV across the entire pressure range

A main focus of the research will be on bringing together the MEMS, photonics, process engineering, fabrication, atomic, and quantum communities to develop innovative manufacturing methodologies that solve these integration challenges. In addition, an essential component of the research will involve developing entirely new in-situ measurement techniques — utilizing cold atoms/ions, high-Q resonators, or other novel modalities — to precisely track internal pressure levels, leak rates, and pumping capacities inside the miniature packages throughout the 42-month, two-phase program.