QTEAM: Quantum Technologies Enabled by Additive Manufacturing

量子技术（QT）有可能改变我们的技术和社会的许多方面。迄今为止，他们提供了世界上最精确的时钟，用于精确计时和导航，以及高性能传感器，例如磁场和引力场，这些传感器已经在地下测绘和医学成像中得到了应用。然而，这些设备的复杂性使它们体积庞大且不可靠；到目前为止，这严重限制了它们在实际应用中的使用。增材制造（AM），通常被称为“3D打印”，是一项关键的新兴技术，可以为追求更小、更节能、更可靠的量子设备提供一个转变。增材制造允许快速、经济地制造几何复杂的零件，具有性能增强的结构，通过传统方法几乎不可能或极其昂贵和费力地生产。到目前为止，AM在量子技术中的应用非常有限。然而，就像在许多其他技术领域一样，增材制造有潜力为QT提供实质性的好处，为QT部门开发设计方法和利用增材制造技术将是该行业未来的关键。目前最先进的QT AM，由诺丁汉大学和添加科学有限公司开发，代表了一个令人信服的原理证明AM在QT领域的适用性及其提供的潜在好处。QTEAM的目标是更进一步，充分利用增材制造的优势，为工业过程中的空间应用生产一流的紧凑型原子重力仪。这是基于RAL空间（STFC -实验室）目前正在开发的设计。证明AM组件对QT的有效性将在该领域打开一个新的市场，因为这些技术将在广泛的QT设备中有用。英国的项目合作伙伴Metamorphic Additive Manufacturing Ltd和Torr Scientific Ltd，在该项目产生的专有技术和知识产权的支持下，将在这个新的重要领域引领行业活动。

Quantum technologies (QT) have the potential to transform many aspects of our technology and society. To date, they provide the world's most accurate clocks for precision timing and navigation, as well as high-performance sensors for e.g. magnetic and gravitational fields, which are already finding applications in subterranean mapping and medical imaging. However, the complexity of these devices makes them bulky and unreliable; so far, this has heavily restricted their use in real-world applications.Additive Manufacturing (AM), more commonly known as "3D printing", is a key emerging technology that can provide a step-change in the quest to make quantum devices smaller, more power-efficient, and more reliable. AM allows the rapid, cost-effective manufacture of geometrically complex parts, featuring performance-enhancing structures that would be near impossible or extremely expensive and laborious to produce via conventional methods. So far, the application of AM within quantum technologies has been extremely limited. However, just as in many other technological areas, AM has the potential to offer substantial benefits for QT. Developing design methods and exploiting AM techniques for the QT sector will be key to the future of the industry.The current state-of-the-art in AM for QT, developed by Nottingham University and Added Scientific Ltd, represents a convincing proof-of-principle of the applicability of AM within the QT sector and the potential benefits it offers. QTEAM aims to take that further and fully exploit the benefits of AM to produce a best-in-class compact atomic gravimeter for space-based applications using industrial processes. This builds upon a design that is currently being developed by RAL space (STFC -- Laboratories). Proving the efficacy of AM components for QT will open a new market within the sector, as these techniques will be useful across a wide range of QT devices. UK-based project partners Metamorphic Additive Manufacturing Ltd and Torr Scientific Ltd, supported by the know-how and intellectual property resulting from this project, will be ideally placed to lead industry activity in this new and important area.