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In January 2023, the Government of Canada launched the National Quantum Strategy to help create jobs and advance quantum technologies in Canada through an investment of $360 million.
Leveraging the Innovative Solutions Canada program, the National Research Council seized this moment to push Canadian quantum technology forward. It awarded a contract to Zero Point Cryogenics, Canada's sole manufacturer specialized in hand-crafted dilution refrigerators and cryogenic equipment, tasking them with building, customizing, and testing a cutting-edge dilution refrigerator.
The company has benefitted from the ISC program in more ways than one:
"Finding a first buyer is the most important thing for a small company; the ISC challenge provides a pathway for us to take our product to market. While other programs are geared towards economic growth, ISC allows companies to advance to new technical readiness levels to enable companies to perfect their product. Thanks to the program, we were able to refine our product, methods and trade secrets. ISC is unique in that it creates a trifecta effect between the customer, vendor and government. It also helped us turn into a sustainable business, helping to enable us to grow from 4 employees in 2022 to 18 in 2024."
What does a dilution refrigerator accomplish?
Zero Point Cryogenics' ultra-compact dilution refrigerator fits into almost any existing laboratory and allows for continuous operation at low temperatures (below 100 millikelvin), which enables quantum properties to be studied and controlled. A breakthrough in size, its intuitive touch-screen display and one-button cool-down and warm-up procedures mean that an expert is no longer needed to run the system, and a sizable facility is no longer needed to house it. All these features remove significant barriers to entry that will enable quantum technologies to become much more accessible, practical, and widely adopted.
The National Research Council helped refine the product
Zero Point Cryogenics (ZPC) worked closely with the National Research Council (NRC) in the early stage of development. The NRC challenged the Edmonton-based company with customization requirements that ZPC had not yet developed. For example, the NRC wanted a large superconducting magnet integrated into their system. Thanks to the NRC, ZPC pursued research and development to achieve their requirements and gained the ability to commercialize the value-added product.
The future for Zero Point Cryogenics
The Innovative Solutions Canada program helped Zero Point Cryogenics in moving out of an academic lab setting and into a manufacturing facility. Thanks to the program, they secured a first customer and have been successful in obtaining and executing a second testing contract with the Department of National Defence. They've set their sights on ISC's Pathway to Commercialization to make the product commercially available in Canada and worldwide.