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Quantum sensors The next level of accuracy for gyroscopes comes from quantum effects. Researchers have already been able to build wafer-level quantum sensors that assemble a cloud of ions, confine them and cool them down with a semiconductor laser and diffraction gratings so that the quantum states become entangled. Tiny changes in acceleration can be detected by the entangled ions, providing an accelerometer or a gyro. A standard MEMS process is used to build channels and cantilevers with gold electrodes that confine the ion cloud on a series of chips on a 4 in silicon wafer that can be used as a single-axis gyro. A prototype unit, the size of a shoebox, uses semiconductor lasers to cool a million rubidium ions for use as the sensor and has been tested at sea in a submarine. The sensitivity of the sensor is such that it is affected by the mass of any nearby undersea mountain ranges. MEMS The biggest advance in IMU technology in recent years however has been the improvement in MEMS sensors. Controlling the design of the IMU from the manufacture and packaging of the MEMS sensor all the way through to the compensation electronics enhances the performance of the overall system (Courtesy of Silicon Sensing)