Canadian startup Q-Block liberates quantum lab gear by shrinking it to shoebox size

A Canadian quantum startup aims to tackle one of the technology’s biggest bottlenecks by making quantum equipment usable outside of labs.

Edmonton-based Q-Block Inc. is turning room-sized quantum laboratory technology into compact, self-contained shoebox sized hardware units that it is calling Q-modules. These combine precision lasers, optics, detectors and real-time control to make quantum technology practical outside the lab.

Q-Block was founded in 2020 by University of Waterloo professor Kyung Soo Choi, now the company’s chief executive, out of the University’s Institute for Quantum Computing.

“Quantum systems have historically been built as bespoke laboratory assemblies, each shaped around the people who built it and the room it occupied, said Choi. “Such a system can produce a remarkable result once; it cannot be reproduced at volume, serviced by a technician, or operated by an organization that did not build it.”

Most current quantum equipment today needs ultra-stable temperature-controlled labs, where each instrument is tuned by hand to keep them from breaking down. But the company’s Q-module integrates lasers, optics, detectors and control electronics into self-contained units that stabilize themselves in real time and run at room temperature on ordinary building power, so the equipment can operate in the field.

The Q-modules contain the company’s three different quantum products: AllanQ, LuciaQ and PolarisQ, which are built from the fundamental building blocks of Q-modules into quantum systems, Choi said. The Q-module device is designed to fit into a universal metal electronics rack, the same rack that would be used for standard computing equipment. The hardware can also be bolted into aircraft, drones and vehicles.

AllanQ is designed to be an unhackable quantum clock that keeps a stable frequency for precise timing in environments where GPS doesn’t work, according to Choi. This allows for GPS-independent navigation, networked computations and precision sensing.

LuciaQ is a networking platform that uses particles of light (photons) to link multiple quantum processors together.

PolarisQ is a modular quantum computing platform that uses individual atoms, held in place and controlled by lasers, as qubits (basic units of information in quantum computing). It is a self-contained system that does not need a dedicated quantum lab built around it, Choi said.

In 2023, the 13-person company was awarded $150,000 as a Phase 1 Proof of Concept grant for its quantum receiver from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada under the Innovative Solutions Canada Program, according to a Government of Canada website.

Q-Block is developing quantum timing, quantum sensing, quantum networking and edge quantum computing technologies for defence and critical infrastructure applications through government contracts now.

The Q-module’s ability to contain several devices in a single platform and its 30–40-year lifespan makes it especially valuable in defence contexts, said Choi.

Q-Block began selling products to the Canadian defence market in 2024. The company did not provide information on revenue but said it plans to expand sales to data centres and critical infrastructure in the coming years.

Choi said he sees the most commercial opportunity in timing and synchronization. This includes sensing, telecommunications, data centres, energy grids and financial infrastructure, the majority of which are synchronized to satellite time. He expects organizations will soon connect quantum devices to their infrastructure to protect critical information, as “Q-day,” approaches, the point when quantum computers may become powerful enough to hack current encryption methods.

In the global race to develop quantum technologies, Canada is well-positioned to have “quantum wins” that don’t rely on raw scale, Choi said. Large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing costs enormous sums and the winners will likely be decided by whomever can sustain spending for the next decade or more, he added, and Canada is not going to win a spending contest against the largest economies.

For him, the real question is: Which races are winnable for Canada?

“Manufacturing creates skills, tooling, suppliers and institutional knowledge that stay in the country and compound. Research does not do that on its own. Canada has invested for decades in becoming a genuine centre of quantum science and whether that investment returns depends on where the resulting industry gets built,” said Choi.

“Timing, secure communication and computation condition the performance of every system built on top of them, so a country that does not build them domestically depends on others for the foundation of its own critical infrastructure.”