U.S. Dirac Labs Secures $1.8 Million in Funding to Develop Diamond-Based Quantum Positioning Sensors

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Dirac Labs Inc., a developer of diamond-based quantum positioning sensors for GPS-denied environments, announced the completion of an $1.8 million pre-seed funding round, which will be used for sensor prototyping and field testing. The company is a spin-off from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The round was led by venture capital firm TitletownTech, an initiative jointly launched by Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers, with participation from Automotive Ventures, Riceberg Ventures, quantumEDGE Ventures, gradCapital, as well as angel investors Balaji Srinivasan and Jude Gomila.

GPS signals cannot penetrate underwater or underground environments and are also susceptible to radio frequency interference and spoofing in contested areas. To address these GPS-denied environments, Dirac Labs adopts a passive geomagnetic quantum sensing approach: its NVD-4 sensor is based on the principle of diamond NV-center magnetometry, detecting subtle local variations in Earth's magnetic field with extremely high sensitivity. Since geomagnetic features can penetrate rock and water, the system provides precise positioning data underwater, underground, and in GPS-denied areas. The device features a built-in real-time AI signal processing engine that handles signal processing and sensor fusion, converting weak geomagnetic inputs into accurate position fixes while compensating for environmental noise and platform vibration. The sensor features a compact plug-and-play design that connects directly to standard GPS device ports on aircraft, submarines, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and industrial mining equipment. Its hardware manufacturing is compatible with CMOS foundry processes, leveraging standard semiconductor manufacturing techniques to reduce production costs and enable high-volume manufacturing.

The company was co-founded by CEO Dr. Sanket Deshpande and COO Aishwarya Das, and has previously received non-dilutive public grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, via gener8tor), the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub.