SINGAPORE – Researchers at the A*STAR Quantum Innovation Centre (A*STAR Q.InC), part of the Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) Flagship in Semiconductors, have developed a levitated, millimetre-scale rotor that continued spinning for more than 10 hours after its drive was switched off, achieving the lowest energy loss reported for a mechanical rotor of its size.
The team used the platform to demonstrate commercial-grade gyroscope [1] sensitivity, providing a foundation for precision sensing technologies that could support navigation where GPS is unavailable, including underground or underwater.
The study, published in Nature Communications, proposes a solution to a longstanding challenge in diamagnetic levitation and establishes a new platform for ultra-sensitive sensing technologies.
Rotational symmetry enables record-low energy loss
Mechanical systems that lose very little energy can detect extremely weak forces and movements, making them useful for precision sensing. While levitation removes friction from physical contact, diamagnetic levitation has historically been limited by eddy-current damping, a mechanism that dissipates energy and slows motion.
The team at A*STAR Q.InC overcame this challenge by exploiting rotational symmetry. As the rotor turns around its central axis, it experiences almost the same magnetic field throughout each rotation, greatly suppressing the eddy currents that would otherwise slow it down. As a result, the rotor’s rotational motion lost energy around 100,000 times more slowly than its sideways and vertical movements.
This allowed the team to achieve a dissipation rate of 3.85 microhertz, the lowest reported for a mechanical rotor at the millimetre scale.
“Achieving extremely low energy loss in larger rotors has long been a challenge, despite their ability to interact more strongly with weak signals,” said Dr Xianfeng Chen, Scientist at A*STAR Q.InC and lead principal investigator of the study. “Our work overcomes this trade-off, establishing a platform for advancing precision sensing and exploring quantum behaviour in larger mechanical systems.”
Prolonged rotation delivers commercial-grade gyroscope sensitivity
Gyroscopes are a core component of inertial navigation systems, enabling vehicles to track changes in orientation even when GPS signals are unavailable. However, their performance depends heavily on the stability of the spinning element at their core. A more stable gyroscope could therefore help vehicles navigate accurately for longer without external signals.
Using real-time control and precisely applied electrostatic forces, the team accelerated the rotor to 930 revolutions per minute. In high vacuum, it continued spinning for more than 10 hours after the drive was switched off. The resulting stability enabled the platform to detect rotations as slow as 0.0065 degrees per second, placing its sensitivity within the commercial-grade range. Modelling further indicates that it could reach the more demanding navigation-grade range with further development, with potential applications such as autonomous underwater vehicles and other GPS-denied operating environments.
Building a future sensing capability in Singapore
Led and developed by A*STAR Q.InC, the platform combines four capabilities rarely achieved in a single system: millimetre-scale passive levitation, room-temperature operation, high spinning speed, and record-low rotational energy loss at this scale.
“This work demonstrates how advances in fundamental science can establish strategically important capabilities for Singapore,” said Professor Lam Ping Koy, A*STAR Chief Quantum Scientist, who leads A*STAR Q.InC. “By drawing on expertise in advanced control, levitation physics, precision engineering and sensing from across A*STAR and Singapore’s wider quantum research ecosystem, we are laying the foundations for future technologies that could address real-world needs in navigation and beyond.”
The team will next increase the rotor’s spinning speed, improve its stability and make the supporting systems more compact. Its longer-term goal is to develop an affordable, commercially viable sensor platform for real-world navigation.
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[1] A gyroscope is a device containing a rapidly spinning wheel or circulating beam of light that is used to detect the deviation of an object from its desired orientation. Gyroscopes are used in compasses and automatic pilots on ships and aircraft, in the steering mechanisms of torpedoes, and in the inertial guidance systems installed in space launch vehicles, ballistic missiles, and orbiting satellites.
Nature Communications
Levitated macroscopic rotors with 10 hours of free spin at room temperature
6-Jul-2026